The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

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Hayter just keeps on winning. As expected

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Hayter just keeps on winning. As expected

Hayter has won two races over the last 12 months. Although technically accurate that's not the verb I would have used to describe his performance.

 

[del1962]

Hatyter used to be up there in reduced sprints, don’t expect much from him unless there’s a time trial and no mountains, not sure what to expect from him for the rest of the season. I had hoped he would be up there in one day races, as he has in the past ( well maybe the occasional one day race) but he definitely competed in the races like the tour of Poland

 

[hayneplane]

Hatyter used to be up there in reduced sprints, don’t expect much from him unless there’s a time trial and no mountains, not sure what to expect from him for the rest of the season. I had hoped he would be up there in one day races, as he has in the past ( well maybe the occasional one day race) but he definitely competed in the races like the tour of Poland

He has become totally allergic to trying to position himself in the peloton which has rendered him useless for the kind of stages that in his early years he was pretty efficient at cleaning up.

 

[search]

yeah, my comment above was actually not too serious, of course.

Hayter's performance on the hills in Belgium was much better than I expected, but I think Poland still looks too hard for him. I would prefer to see him in Denmark or at the Deutschland Tour, although there the prologue is probably too short to make enough of a difference.

 

[Squire]

Hayter's performance on the hills in Belgium was much better than I expected

Maybe for the current Hayter. But until his disastrous 2024 he was winning hilltop finishes and going top 15 in races like the Dauphiné. He should not be getting dropped by a 15 man group on a small Belgian hill like he was. Still, he's better now than he has been for a long time of course.

 

[vladimir]

Fedorov doing his job by winning both RR and ITT in the Khazak nationals for me and Gotland

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Seixas drilling at the front of the group in the last kilometer of the French NC so Magnier has no legs for the sprint is suboptimal synergy between my riders. Congrats on managing 9th and 10th out of 10. It's been that kind of year.

 

[RedheadDane]

Decent showing for my guys at the nationals.

1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 20th in the RR.

3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th in the ITT.

Not quite the levels of last year...
doesn't help that the RR was only classified as a "NC2" race this year.

 

[Squire]

Omrzel is pricing himself out of basically everything these days.

And Kubis and Romeo keep on reminding me that I should have been bolder with my choices. And Brennan keeps doing Brennan things. But I also had some riders score some points, so it's not all bad. Mainly the popular ones though.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Omrzel is pricing himself out of basically everything these days.

Yeah, the Slovenian NCs being the farmiest points on the calendar because Pogacar breaks CQ's NC categorisation system is kind of a shame in cases like this. He hasn't been picked at all for this year either, so that will be the highest score ever by an unpicked first-year U23 by a country mile.

Feels like a fairly low-scoring set of NCs this year. Overall my team did okay, neither Van Aert nor Nys scoring in Belgium was a big disappointment but I did get some points out of my less ubiquitous picks (Kragh, Engelhardt, Morgado).

 

[Squire]

Yeah, the Slovenian NCs being the farmiest points on the calendar because Pogacar breaks CQ's NC categorisation system is kind of a shame in cases like this. He hasn't been picked at all for this year either, so that will be the highest score ever by an unpicked first-year U23 by a country mile.

When researching this game (and especially the Emerging Riders one) I couldn't find any news on Omrzel since his horror crash, so I had no idea if he was even going to be able to continue as a cyclist. That might be a factor for others who potentially looked into picking him too.

Luckily whatever injuries he got haven't seemed to affect him.

 

[Earns1985]

So after a very good Dauphine week, I hope, that this is also a good sign for my tour team!

Vingegaard
van Aert
Lipowitz
Gall
Demare

I am pretty happy with that as all of these riders will get their own chances during the race and I don´t have riders who are there as pure domestique and will waste therefore a lot of race days without scoring a lot..

Hopefully Riccitello will also start as scheduled in Sibiu this week.

 

[Squire]

So after a very good Dauphine week, I hope, that this is also a good sign for my tour team!

Vingegaard
van Aert
Lipowitz
Gall
Demare

I am pretty happy with that as all of these riders will get their own chances during the race and I don´t have riders who are there as pure domestique and will waste therefore a lot of race days without scoring a lot..

Hopefully Riccitello will also start as scheduled in Sibiu this week.

That's a pretty good lineup. Lipo and Gall can both dream about top 5. And I share your hopes about Riccitello. It's about time he starts scoring this season. Edit: Riccitello seems to be confirmed for Sibiu. He should win that race in his sleep.

My Tour team:
ALMEIDA João
VINGEGAARD Jonas
PENHOËT Paul
PLAPP Luke
DUNBAR Eddie
LOUVEL Matis

I'm obviously confident in Almeida and Vingegaard, but the rest is rather underwhelming.

Penhoët will probably just waste 21 race days for very little gain, and continue his absolutely horrible calendar for CQ purposes, which is not what you expect when picking a French sprinter.

Plapp the non-recoverer doing the Tour on the back of the Giro sounds like a recipe for disaster and an early end to the season, but we'll see. Dunbar has been an absolute disaster so far, but maybe there's hope that he can finally find some form. Hopefully he gets to ride his own race instead of pacing a dropped O'Connor.

Louvel is just whatever. Hasn't turned out the way I hoped at all, and the Tour will definitely not change that. But maybe he'll benefit from it later.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

My Tour team:
ALMEIDA João
VINGEGAARD Jonas
PENHOËT Paul
PLAPP Luke
DUNBAR Eddie
LOUVEL Matis

But those points just get subsumed into the overall annual scores here, what you really need is a game that is all about your Tour points.

Like the Tour de France CQ manager game: with prices all finalised and teams (almost) fully confirmed. If you avoid leaving it to the last moment, I'll be able to check the team for you (although the budget would not allow Almeida and Vingegaard in the same team)

 

[Earns1985]

I'm obviously confident in Almeida and Vingegaard, but the rest is rather underwhelming.

In the unlikely, but also not impossible scenario, that Pogacar crashes out of the tour, you would be the one, who would probably benifit the most in this game. Next would be all other Vingegaard owners, which includes also me...

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

I'll get the national champs update out some time tonight and then it's back to skidmark for the TDF. Enjoy the big race everybody.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update #23: Slow climber on the fast track

National championship week is always chaotic and this year was no exception. Enjoy the choas as the next few updates figure to be a lot more predictable (*cough* Pogacar, Vingegaard *cough*).

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	slow_climber​	880​
2​	Pantani4ever​	852​
3​	Eyeballs Out​	766​
4​	Total Package​	751​
5​	Qazaqstan​	746​

Slow climber fully exploits the GB championiships to top the week. Watson, Hayter and Brennan form the core of the scoring with nice complements from Vermeersch, Vacek, Govekar, Ganna, Seixas, A.W. Philipsen, Magnier, Cavagna, Van Baarle, Buchmann and Marit.

Pantani4ever takes second place with a monster week from Ivan Romeo and a good help from rare picks like Busatto, Askey, Tiller and Mikhels. Eyeballs Out is third with Romeo and Schmid leading the way. Ganna, Johannessen, Morgado, Hayter, De Schuyteneer, Van Baarle, Seixas and A.W. Philipsen.

Total Package is fourth with a lot of success coming from Great Britain (Hayter, Vernon), Italy (Busatto, Ganna), Denmark (Kragh Andersen, A.W. Philipsen) and Germany (Engelhardt, Behrens). Qazaqstan is fifth with the four Gs leading the way: Grégoire, Ganna, Gee and Gruel. Kragh Andersen, Brennan, Vermeersch, Van Baarle are among the other top scorers.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	Total Package​	(+10)​
2​	Pantani4ever​	(+8)​
2​	marksi​	(+8)​
4​	Eyeballs Out​	(+7)​
4​	LosBrolin​	(+7)​

Total Package, Pantani4Ever, Eyeballs Out all repeat their appearance here. Qazaqstan and slow climber already being in the top 10 of the GC before this week obviously don't. LosBrolin and marksi are the teams showing up here. LosBrolin in particular must be commended for stopping their rise at 7 spots (8 would have seen them overtake my team).

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Pantani4ever​	308​
2​	Salvarani​	285​
3​	Rufs​	219​
4​	Qazaqstan​	169​
5​	slow_climber​	165​

Pantani4Ever strikes back after Salvarani usurped their top spot last week. Rufs, Qazaqstan and slow climber all add a good chunk of points but it's increasingly a two teams race.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​
1​	Salvarani​	9862​
2​	Qazaqstan​	9106​
3​	postmanhat​	8791​
4​	Senderos​	8755​
5​	slow_climber​	8740​
6​	abbulf​	8426​
6​	triley36​	8426​
8​	MADRAZO​	8333​
9​	will10​	8264​
10​	Nyssinator​	8226​

Qazaqstan slashes two hundred points off the lead while slowly pulling away from the rest of the field. Will10 replaces squire in the top 10. Check out triley36 and abbulf being tied for sixth. It literally doesn't get any closer than this.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

 

[Earns1985]

So Riccitello finally looks like he gets his first bigger amount of points this season.

It´s pretty interesting to look at who from us have him. Although until now, he wasn´t a good pick at all, (only 36% of last years score), there is a clear distribution, that the higher placed players in the overall have him, instead of the ones lower in the ranking.

You would assume such a distribution from a rider, who outscored last season already, but not from a rider like Riccitello in my opinion.

Player Rank	Player
1	Salvarani
3	postmanhat
8	MADRAZO
11	Squire
15	hayneplane
20	Pantani4Ever
24	peixotini
27	HoudiniCycling
28	EvansIsTheBest
29	Blues in the bottle
31	Earns1985
37	Fivezzz
48	ingsve
52	Nakazar
78	Sneekes
86	firefly3323
88	Mountain Newts

 

[Earns1985]

Complete opposite for example is Demare, which is a rider with basically the same cost from last season and a similar popularity.

Although he also doesn´t perform as from me expected before the season, he at least scored nearly 90% of his last seasons score, so from a mathematical point of view, you would assume that the guys who picked him should be higher in the overall ranking, than the Riccitello owners, but the opposite is defenitly true as you can see:

Player Rank	Player
8	MADRAZO
31	Earns1985
49	Eyeballs Out
51	nbfc1962
55	escartin
58	laarsland
59	vladimir
60	RestInPunk
66	Samu Cuenca
68	Wvv
73	Boris98
77	NorthAmericanScum
84	Rakim
93	AlTarf_ua

 

[postmanhat]

Despite some bad luck, and even worse selections by me, my team has been in the top three since late March. But the Tour has been looming, and Vingo, WVA, Lipowitz, Almedia, Nys, Yates, Butriago, Onley could all potentially score very well.

In contrast, I have;

Gall - If he can stay on his bike, then a top ten will see him into profit at least.

Buchmann - Assumed he'd be point-farming in some of smaller French races, but he and/or the team still think he's a WT GC rider for some reason. Top 15 would be nice.

Ganna - Hopefully some decent TT points.

Powless/Simmons - Some stage-hunting opportunities in the first two weeks, but they're going need a lot of luck.

Plapp - Pretty much given up on him. Maybe he'll prove me wrong and actually do something in the second half of the European season for the first time.

Louvel - Still haven't given up, and hoping for better results in the Belgian/French Fall calendar.

Could easily see Vingo scoring more than my entire team. Not looking forward to the update at the end, and will be happy to still be in the top 20.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Ain, Avenir, Luxembourg and Guangxi for Seixas. That's a pretty tasty late season calendar.

 

[repre]

Ain, Avenir, Luxembourg and Guangxi for Seixas. That's a pretty tasty late season calendar.

Soft for a guy who was top-5 climber at stacked Dophine

 

[RedheadDane]

Salby gets 10 points for 3rd on the 1st stage in Quinghai. So... err... yay...

 

[tobydawq]

So ready for Wout, Ganna and Van Eetvelt to redeem my team in the Tour!