The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[ingsve]

Yesterday: 10th.
Today: 5th.
Tomorrow: ?st?

(Too bad he wasn't 15th on stage 1)

Suspect tomorrow will be too long and hard for him to be completely up top. I hope Kulset can be top 3 at least at the top though.

 

[RedheadDane]

Suspect tomorrow will be too long and hard for him to be completely up top. I hope Kulset can be top 3 at least at the top though.

How dare you destroy my epic math skills?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

How dare you destroy my epic math skills?

If the pattern continues, he will finish 0rd tomorrow, and that won't score us any points.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update #14: Salvarani solves Ardennes week

As we close the chapter of the spring classics and we move into stage racing season, at least one team will be desperate to bottle up the present moment.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	Salvarani​	1014​
2​	Lortnoc​	762​
3​	Googolplex​	760​
4​	Devils_Elbow​	724​
5​	Armchair cyclist​	704​

Salvarani scores the rare 1000+ points in a non-GT week, comfortably lapping the field. Ciccone was the main man but there was contributions all over the roster : Gall, Buitrago, Arensman, Hindley, Riccitello, Bagioli, Pescador, Tulett and Seixas all above 40 points for the week. Lortnoc is a distant second, buoyed by Healy, Hindley, Schmid, Poole, Seixas and Bagioli.

Googolplex parlays their investment in Grégoire into the last spot on the podium. Devil's Elbow and Armchair Cyclist recreate some of the magic from their classics team and round out the top 5.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	Armchair cyclist​	(+21)​
2​	Googolplex​	(+17)​
3​	Kazistuta​	(+14)​
4​	hayneplane​	(+13)​
5​	Blues in the bottle​	(+12)​

Armchair cyclist rockets up the rankings with a giant 21 place jump. Googolplex features on the podium again while long time participant Kazistuta relies on the Ciccone/Healy one-two punch to gain 14 spots. Hayneplane takes fourth, but presumably behind Gee and Nys should enjoy some more good weeks going forward. Finally it's not been the best year for 2023 winner Blues in the bottle but maybe this can get their team going.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Salvarani​	189​
2​	Pantani4ever​	176​
3​	Rufs​	147​
4​	Qazaqstan​	145​
5​	search​	131​

Salvarani's weekly win pushes them over the top while Qazaqstan grabs a few points to break the tie for fourth. That also makes them one of only three temas still within reach of a weekly win of the new leader.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​	Up/down​
1​	Salvarani​	5598​	(+9)​
2​	postmanhat​	5583​	(-)​
3​	Qazaqstan​	5460​	(-)​
4​	MADRAZO​	5430​	(+1)​
5​	search​	5405​	(-4)​
6​	manafana​	5199​	(+3)​
7​	slow_climber​	5182​	(+1)​
8​	will10​	5091​	(-1)​
9​	peixotini​	5069​	(+3)​
10​	Rufs​	5013​	(-6)​

For the second week in the row nobody moves in or out of the top 10. The main story though is Salvarani taking control here as well going from 10th to 1st. Former leader search slides to fith and will start searching for more points in Romandie this week.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Following @Squire and @Eyeballs Out remarks concerning the Excel file, I've added an OpenOffice version so hopefully everybody can have access to a version of the file they can download. Hopefully I'll have more time next week to fix the actual issue in the excel file.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

a fantastic provisional lineup for Frankfurt (Nys, Kragh, Bagioli, Magnier, Morgado, Engelhardt, Vader, Sénéchal, Gesbert),

Lol. Even with Withen scoring points, that was a disaster.

 

[Earns1985]

Lol. Even with Withen scoring points, that was a disaster.

Yeah, don't know what's up with Magnier in the last couple of weeks. In February he would have been surely in the front group in the end. Hopefully in the giro he can get a few results, but right now I doubt it..

For me also pretty disastrous was, than Herzog put all his energy in an attack 3 km from the finish, instead of waiting for the sprint. Even without a chance to win, that would have been by ages his best result in world tour race until now..

 

[hayneplane]

Surprised @RedheadDane hasn’t posted in here today as this must surely be her teams best day of the season.

Pleased with AWP getting his best pro result.

 

[RedheadDane]

Surprised @RedheadDane hasn’t posted in here today as this must surely be her teams best day of the season.

Oh... I've had other "best day of the season, so far." days...

And my hope that Foldager would do a little more in Romandie than just finishing went about as well as Latour descending...

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And my hope that Foldager would do a little more in Romandie than just finishing went about as well as Latour descending...

It was Vinjebo's fault for talking him up for the prologue. He was destined to fail after that.

 

[RedheadDane]

It was Vinjebo's fault for talking him up for the prologue. He was destined to fail after that.

So Vinjebo can jinx riders by saying they'll do well, but make pictures return by stating he has a bad feeling? Dayjum... that guy got skills!





Otoh, he can't give a sticky bottle without his arm hurting...

 

[postmanhat]

Lol. Even with Withen scoring points, that was a disaster.

Apologies, but had the other extreme of luck. Only two riders in the race, Powless and Withen. A small buffer against the disaster that has been Romandie.

Your team having Vingo and WVA at 12th is pretty ominous for the next three months. But
I suspect Houdini's even more ruthless strategy will be the most profitable.

 

[armchairclimber]

I had a pretty disastrous spring after a great start. Injuries to key riders and the the young one day/classics guns I was hoping for improvement from all got worse. Nice to be scoring again now. And Lenny Martinez, who was my number 1 pick, is looking like reasonable value now. Love the little fella.

 

[tobydawq]

Picking Van Eetvelt over Almeida seems inexplicable now, yet I never dreamt that Almeida would become so good (and had admittedly not realised how great his schedule was).

 

[Salvarani]

Tour de Romandie ends with my riders finishing 1st, 3rd, 9th, 13th and 23rd.

I will take it, I guess... if thats what they wanted to do here.

Jokes aside, there was some good performances. It was nice to see.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

If only I had picked that all Astana team.

 

[RedheadDane]

Decent week, I guess.
Bit of a bummer that Foldager had to pull out of Romandie, but nice of Hellemose to do the "bit more than just finishing" thing instead. Price also managed to get a stage point from the ITT.
Kron managed to get a few points from Turkiye, but of course I should have included Bregnhøj as one of my random conti guys.
Frankfurt went quite well (for my standards).
Søjberg getting a few points from the Danish races, and Salby even managing to sneak a single point home from Uzbekistan.

 

[hayneplane]

Picking Van Eetvelt over Almeida seems inexplicable now, yet I never dreamt that Almeida would become so good (and had admittedly not realised how great his schedule was).

Getting leadership at both Itzulia and Romandie with such average GC fields could not have confidently been predicted and for his propensity to get in his own way at times only surfacing in the least important race has made him a great pick so far.

 

[Netserk]

Getting leadership at both Itzulia and Romandie with such average GC fields could not have confidently been predicted and for his propensity to get in his own way at times only surfacing in the least important race has made him a great pick so far.

His full schedule was announced December 10.

That's not how I interpret his schedule at all. If anything, I think it shows that he's 2nd in the hierarchy.

He wanted to do the Tour and a podium there is a big target for both him and UAE. It'll be tough, but it's not impossible. Riding for Pogacar doesn't change a thing partly because Pogacar is likely in a league on his own and doesn't need support anyway, and partly because Almeida rides the Almeida way no matter what. He wanted to do the Vuelta as well. His role will be the same as in the Tour, but with a real chance of winning of Pogacar doesn't go.

He gets to do all the one week races as a leader now.

Edit: his full schedule is btw:

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
Figueira Champions Classic
Vola ao Algarve
Paris-Nice
Itzulia Basque Country
Tour de Romandie
Tour de Suisse
Tour de France
Vuelta a Espana

 

[hayneplane]

His full schedule was announced December 10.

Yes but the paucity of the rest of the field could not have been expected.

 

[Salvarani]

Yes but the paucity of the rest of the field could not have been expected.

That is something that is out of your control that you cant take into consideration in the picking process.

 

[Netserk]

I think the schedule was announced for most of the top one-week stage racers before the game's deadline. Evenepoel was an unknown, but I'm not sure who would qualify as better competition than what he faced? Carlos Rodriguez had a bad collarbone break in UAE, so he could have maybe challenged in both Itzulia and Romandie without that (but I doubt it). Maybe Lipowitz could have been expected to ride Romandie again?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

It does also help that Almeida has been really consistent this year, basically only one lesser day (Paris-Nice, the final stage) and that was in the one race where he already wasn't going to score heavily because of losing time in the echelons. Don't get me wrong, the four players who have picked him deserve full credit because this is not a scenario that nobody could have expected and with the benefit of hindsight he was underpicked for sure, but he's definitely sitting at the very top end of expectations.

 

[Earns1985]

It does also help that Almeida has been really consistent this year, basically only one lesser day (Paris-Nice, the final stage) and that was in the one race where he already wasn't going to score heavily because of losing time in the echelons. Don't get me wrong, the four players who have picked him deserve full credit because this is not a scenario that nobody could have expected and with the benefit of hindsight he was underpicked for sure, but he's definitely sitting at the very top end of expectations.

Yes, also my credit for the four players here. Schedule was announced in advance.
Even if Vingegaard wouldn´t have crashed in Paris-Nice and would have won Paris-Nice and later Catalunya, he would have less points than Almeida right now.

Nobody knows of course, what will come from now on, but that he is also riding Tour de Suisse, while all of the other big guns will head to Dauphine will be a factor. Same occurs a bit to Ayuso, while he really has a bit of luck, that A. Yates who rode the same races like Ayuso and had been in the past also the leader in these races for his team, worked basically for Ayuso in Tirreno and Catalunya. That wasn´t something, that you could know before the start of the season.. given Ayuso's form in the end of last years season..

 

[RedheadDane]

Correct me if I'm wrong.
At this point last year, Shalgo had already Pogacared us all, right?




(While I was mucking around in last place like some sort of Fabio Jakobsen.)