The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[RedheadDane]

I actually got points this week? I was absolutely not expecting that (and I was also regretting not following through on my brief consideration of having a Pedersen-focused team; remove some of my more questionable picks, and add Mads and his Lidl brother, as well as Just Pedersen. So that I - together with Breiner, C. Pedersen, and Søjberg - would have had six Pedersens on my team. Of course, Martin would probably have been considered a questionable pick...)

In fact both my riders left in the Giro managed to score points, with Honoré just about sneaking into top-10.

 

[Kazistuta]

Very symbolic for my season and my CQ game choices that my only GC rider Ciccone crashed and now DNF the giro....

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Very symbolic for my season and my CQ game choices that my only GC rider Ciccone crashed and now DNF the giro....

At least he managed to surpass his 2024 score before it happened.

 

[repre]

Very symbolic for my season and my CQ game choices that my only GC rider Ciccone crashed and now DNF the giro....

It's not like his season is over. He can ride TDF or Vuelta

 

[search]

Finally the Tour of Estonia is on again this week, and even Astana didn't bother to line up for this.

Here's hope Boguslawski will take part

 

[RedheadDane]

Asgreen - and Honoré - ensured that the Giro wasn't a total disaster for me, and hopefully they'll both finish, ensuring me the standard 15 points for finishing a (non-TdF) GT.
Though, Honoré should be embarassed by the fact that he's Dane who has not won a stage in this Giro... (Fuglsang should too, but he's not on my team, so it's less relevant. Also, he's old.)

Mayenne:
Changizi
Charmig
Norsgaard
Stokbro
Søjberg

Norway:
Bjerg
Blume
Johansen
Gregaard
Kamp
Lund
Price
(Wandahl is still listed on the prelimiary startlist on FirstCycling, but considering the rather severe concussion he got in Hongrie, I don't think that's very likely.)

 

[Earns1985]

So first week of the giro done and I think it´s interesting to see, how popular the current leading riders are in this game.

Here it is:

	Popularity Top20 overall	Popularity overall
DEL TORO Isaac	1​	8​
AYUSO Juan	6​	11​
TIBERI Antonio	1​	9​
CARAPAZ Richard	0​	0​
CICCONE Giulio	4​	9​
YATES Simon	2​	15​
BERNAL Egan	0​	0​
MCNULTY Brandon	0​	0​
YATES Adam	0​	0​
ROGLIČ Primož	0​	2​
STORER Michael	0​	0​
CARUSO Damiano	1​	8​
ARENSMAN Thymen	4​	5​
VACEK Mathias	1​	1​
RUBIO Einer	0​	1​
PIDCOCK Thomas	0​	1​
HARPER Chris	0​	0​
PELLIZZARI Giulio	1​	12​
PIGANZOLI Davide	0​	1​
GEE Derek	2​	6​

Especially eyecatching in my eyes is Arensman (who is only 5 times picked, but 4 out of them are currently in Top20 overall), Ciccone (the current Top3 overall have him) and 37 years old Caruso, about who I thought until a few minutes ago, that he wouldn´t be a factor at all in this game..

So Ayuso, Ciccone and Arensman, which are the most popular ones in the current Top20 in this game are basically out of the Top 10 in the GC. Hottest bets are right now S. Yates, Pellizzari, Caruso, del Toro, Gee and Tiberi.
Everyone, who doesn´t have one of them, has to hope for Carapaz, Bernal and Storer.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Everyone, who doesn´t have one of them, has to hope for Carapaz, Bernal and Storer.

...and Rubio!

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update #18: A mexican wave is coming

As the Giro ticks along, the top riders have almost all been ignored by the managers in this game opening the door to the eight Del Toro team to completely take over the week (and occupy the top seven spots). With the way things are going they'll dominate next update's too.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	hayneplane​	337​
2​	SafeBet​	317​
3​	Crevaison​	308​
4​	Nyssinator​	302​
5​	RestInPunk​	275​

Hayneplane tops the chart this week with over half their points from Del Toro alone. Wout Van Aert, Jarno Widar and Artem Schmidt complement the star of the show to nudge them in front of SafeBet (Del Toro, Van Aert, Widar, Tarling). Crevaison (Del Toro, Asgreen, Schmidt) and Nyssinator (Del Toro, Van Aert, Tarling, Widar) are the two other team to crack 300 points. RestInPunk rounds out the top 5.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	Crevaison​	(+11)​
2​	DJW​	(+8)​
3​	hayneplane​	(+7)​
4​	18-Valve. (pithy)​	(+6)​
4​	triley36​	(+6)​
4​	Samu Cuenca​	(+6)​

SafeBet can't make it three in a row and in fact don't even feature here but it has been another great week regardless so I don't think they'll mind. Crevaison doesn't come up flat and makes the only double digit jump. DJW, 18-Valve._(pithy) and triley are the last three Del Toro team I haven't mentioned yet in this update. Cheers to Samu Cuenca for representing all the non-Del Toro team in this update (Asgreen, Van Aert, Tarling).

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Pantani4ever​	251​
2​	Salvarani​	234​
3​	Rufs​	208​
4​	Qazaqstan​	145​
5​	search​	131​

Hayneplane climbs to tenth with the weekly win and nobody in front scored any points so there's very little to report on.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​
1​	Salvarani​	6941​
2​	postmanhat​	6470​
3​	MADRAZO​	6293​
4​	Qazaqstan​	6185​
5​	search​	6136​
6​	slow_climber​	6108​
7​	manafana​	6030​
8​	abbulf​	5996​
9​	Rufs​	5978​
10​	will10​	5948​

Will10 is the highest scorer in the top 10 with 138 points (less than Del Toro managed on his own) so it's no surprise that it's basically status quo at the top of the rankings. The only movement is search and slow climber swapping places. The next update with the Giro GC points should provide a far more dramatic up heaval.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

 

[Squire]

When Ethan Hayter is your biggest scorer, you know you've had a bad week. 40 points for 89th on the week for me. And next week isn't going to be much better, with my two remaining riders in the Giro occupying 82nd and 144th in the GC.

But the struggles of Ayuso and Ciccone does mean that a lot of the top guys aren't pulling away as much as expected, so all in all the Giro has actually been quite good in terms of my CQ chances despite me hardly scoring any points. Nyssinator in 12th currently looks quite good with Del Toro and Gee, but other than that there's not a lot of points waiting for many of the top teams. Simon Yates might extend Salvarani's gap at the head of the field even more of course, but with them having Ciccone, Hindley and Arensman as well, the Giro could almost be seen as a bit of a disappointment for our great leader.

Excited to see what Almeida and Vingegaard can do for my team over the coming months.

 

[hayneplane]

Excellent week with both my GC riders continuing to deliver some stage points as well as hold high GC positions.

Major bonus was Artem Schmidt winning the US ITT national championship.

 

[Squire]

Here's hope Boguslawski will take part

Congrats! Impressive unique pick.

 

[search]

Congrats! Impressive unique pick.

it's probably his best opportunity to score big points this year. Good to see that he seems to deliver.

He is actually not unique, though, as Leadbelly has him as well. His points show up for both of us, so no idea what's causing the issue there.

 

[Squire]

Not having Brennan is so painful ...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Not having Brennan is so painful ...

It's such a weird season for the obvious U23 graduates. Almost all of them have been really disappointing so far and then there's Brennan who would outright be outscoring De Lie's debut season if he was doing a better schedule.

 

[postmanhat]

Ciccone hadn't even scored 10 points before June last year, and is already in profit. Given his record in GTs, not expecting a top 5 from The Giro, but as he was a fanboy pick, couldn't have hoped for much more up to now.

Ayuso's injury is a concern as he hasn't looked comfortable for the last two days. Will be happy with a podium at this stage, though maybe the relatively easy upcoming few days will give him time to recover.

Another stage win from Plapp would help to make up for another disappointing season.

Well that was a disaster and the end of my challenge. Would have been nice to keep the pressure on Salvarani, but they seem to be the least unlucky team so far.

Over to the Vingo teams for the next couple of months. Will be happy to still be in the top 20 by the end of The Tour

 

[Salvarani]

Well that was a disaster and the end of my challenge. Would have been nice to keep the pressure on Salvarani, but they seem to be the least unlucky team so far.

Over to the Vingo teams for the next couple of months. Will be happy to still be in the top 20 by the end of The Tour

Arensman, Plapp, Ciccone, Vine, Hindley...

I dont think anyone has been more unlucky actually.

But Simon Yates. Nice.

 

[Salvarani]

Simon Yates, 620 points, picked by 15 teams
It should be a good opportunity for him to come to one of the best teams in the peloton. No surprise if Simon has one of the best seasons in his career riding for Visma. He should have own opportunities in a few stage-races, while probably riding as a super-dom in the GTs first and foremost… which could still lead to a good result for himself as well. He is a potential high-scorer, in one of the best teams, that could be costly to miss out on.

Actually winning the Giro is better than expected... but one had hopes for a podium or top 5. Thereabouts. In a GT.

Congrats to the fellow Yates owners.

 

[Salvarani]

Only three teams that has the combo of M. Brennan (33 teams) and S. Yates (15 teams).

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Actually winning the Giro is better than expected... but one had hopes for a podium or top 5. Thereabouts. In a GT.

Congrats to the fellow Yates owners.

Was on track to be a really bad pick three weeks ago, sometimes things do turn around. Commiserations to my fellow non-Yates owners

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Yes, 1st and 3rd in the GC of a stage race the week the Giro ends. What's that you say it's in Norway and it's just a fraction of the points ? Well I'll take it still.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

It's such a weird season for the obvious U23 graduates. Almost all of them have been really disappointing so far and then there's Brennan who would outright be outscoring De Lie's debut season if he was doing a better schedule.

Is it though ? Brennan was the clear cut best prospect of the bunch for 2025 in my mind and the only one I felt confident about making the transition. I'd hardly call Seixas and Philipsen disappointing.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Is it though ? Brennan was the clear cut best prospect of the bunch for 2025 in my mind and the only one I felt confident about making the transition. I'd hardly call Seixas and Philipsen disappointing.

Seixas and Philipsen aren't U23 graduates but junior graduates, I deliberately didn't say neopros here. Was mainly talking about Nordhagen, Torres and (if he belongs in the same tier of obviousness) Behrens, and then Widar has also done very little in his pro races. 352 points between the four of them as of right now is almost shockingly poor, IMO.

 

[RedheadDane]

So, decent week for me.

Asgreen and Honoré both finished the Giro, getting the basic 15 points each.
Lund finishes 4th in the GC in Norway, and also gets some stage points along the way. Kamp, Bjerg, and Gregaard also all goes in the points.
Charmig finishes 10th in the GC in Mayenne. Stokbro also goes in the points.
Even Dalby and Øxenberg managed to sneak some points home from Course de la Paix with 2nd and 5th respectively.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Van Aert was ultimately one of the most crucial riders in the Giro, but I had hoped he would've scored a few more points during the race. Still, considering it seemed uncertain whether he would even get through the first week at one point, it was overall an uplifting experience to watch him in Albania and Italy. He's 458 points behind his 2024 tally now, but that's far from the 1500 point deficit of Vingegaard. It won't be his best season ever, but I only ask of my riders that they improve on last year. Van Baarle has just managed that by getting his participation trophy, to the delight of 80% of us.