The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Anderis]

Still 44 teams that didn't pick him.

I wonder who was the rider with the smallest number of players that didn't pick him in a given year in the history of this game?

 

[Salvarani]

I wonder who was the rider with the smallest number of players that didn't pick him in a given year in the history of this game?

Bernal has to be quite high up there on such a list.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Ah, the first GC that appeared on PCS had him at 11th overall. So ya 25 points. Still far better riding in the last 2 days than anything he did last season. Mind also that he lost over 1.5 minutes on the first 2 easy stages so without that he would have been top 3 in the end which probably would have been good enough for perhaps a top 10 with everyone still in the race.

Sure, it's definitely an uplifting performance, but it's not one that makes me think those 44 players have missed out just yet.

 

[ingsve]

Sure, it's definitely an uplifting performance, but it's not one that makes me think those 44 players have missed out just yet.

Well, unless he has the season of his life it's not like he's going to be a Del Toro level pick. But based on his normal level I expect him to land at 300-400 points which is a good return for a cost of 80 but likely not something that people would be kicking themselves over missing no.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Bernal has to be quite high up there on such a list.

He actually wasn't even the most popular pick in 2023 (that was Alaphilippe). The problem with guys that score too close to zero is that they tend to slip through the cracks for a couple people. To maximize popularity it's actually better if the rider in question score around 150-200 points. Cheap enough that everyobdy is still going to pick him if he is a world class rider and that shows he did enough in the previous 12 months that people won't have forgotten his existence.

See this squire post for more info (to my knowledge, nobody has topped that Boonen score since):

I had a quick look at the popularity lists for this year. Here's how they've affected the overall CQ game statistics:

We have a new leader in overall picks across the years! Dombrowski moves past Phinney & Goss to take first place as the most picked rider ever. Aru enters the top 10.

1 DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd 325
2 PHINNEY Taylor 316
3 BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 296
4 GOSS Matthew 289
5 MOSER Moreno 270
6 SCHLECK Andy 257
7 BOONEN Tom 252
8 EWAN Caleb 248
9 ARU Fabio 236
10 HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 215

Degenkolb enters the list of most popular picks per year by being in 88,5% of all 2017 teams.

1 BOONEN Tom 92,0 % 2014
2 KITTEL Marcel 91,7 % 2016
3 SCHLECK Andy 90,2 % 2013
4 HUSHOVD Thor 89,4 % 2013
5 DEGENKOLB John 88,5 % 2017

As some players have already suspected, 2017 is indeed a very "unique" year, only surpassed by the first year of the game, 2011. This is decided by an admittedly very crude calculation: Amount of different riders picked divided by number of teams participating. There are of course a number of ways by which this number can be skewed, but it's an indicator at least. 2011's "uniqueness number" is 5,9; 2017's number is 4,8. The "least unique" year was 2013 with a "uniqueness number" of 4,0.

The amount of riders that have been picked at least once every year has almost halved from last year. 31 remain of last year's 59. This is the first year nobody has picked Sagan, Anton or Goss ( ) among others.

Three of the ever-present players were lost this year, so among the 2017 participants there are now only 16 people who have played the CQ game every year.

 

[Earns1985]

So still one week left, until the season really starts to kick off for my team.

Right now, I am not not super unhappy, about how the popular riders (> 25 players picked them) performed, which I don´t have in my team. Let´s have a look:

Ethan Hayter (58 players): Invsible in Oman until now..
Matthew Dinham (40 players): Didin´t race yet.
Leo Bisiaux (63 players): Didn´t race yet.
Fabio Jakobsen (31 players): Like last year in awful condition.
Milan Vader (26 players): 20th in GC overall in Valencia, well not that much of a deal..
Filippo Ganna (25 players): Team dropped out of Besseges, which means that he wasn´t able to get GC points in a race tailor made for him.

 

[Salvarani]

He actually wasn't even the most popular pick in 2023 (that was Alaphilippe). The problem with guys that score too close to zero is that they tend to slip through the cracks for a couple people. To maximize popularity it's actually better if the rider in question score around 150-200 points. Cheap enough that everyobdy is still going to pick him if he is a world class rider and that shows he did enough in the previous 12 months that people won't have forgotten his existence.

See this squire post for more info (to my knowledge, nobody has topped that Boonen score since):

Ala would be 94,17% I think in that year.

Bernal would be 87,38%. So still pretty high on such a list, as I said. He was just a popular pick that I thought of, that would make such a list that Anderis was asking about.

 

[armchairclimber]

Modest scoring this week but not unhappy. A fair few riders into profit (like Izquierdo today) and well over half my gang have points on the board. Given that a fair few of the gang were in teams tha pulled out of Besseges, can't complain.
Buitrago looks great. Probably the biggest "should have" I have seen thus far.

 

[Salvarani]

I didnt want to say too much, but I had high hopes going into Valenciana and the riders delivered.

As you know I have spoken myself warm about Buitrago and my thoughts on him going into this season. Good start.

Almeida finishing 2nd overall is also promising.

Add Arensman finishing 4th, Hindley 9th and Vader 19th... you cant complain about the outcome.

Anticipating the starts of S. Yates, Ciccone, Gall and Riccitello to see how they will get going.

 

[tobydawq]

Ah, the first GC that appeared on PCS had him at 11th overall. So ya 25 points. Still far better riding in the last 2 days than anything he did last season. Mind also that he lost over 1.5 minutes on the first 2 easy stages so without that he would have been top 3 in the end which probably would have been good enough for perhaps a top 10 with everyone still in the race.

I think he has disappointed greatly over this weekend. The points he got this race were undeserved and he has certainly done nothing to prove to me that it was a mistake not to pick him.

 

[Earns1985]

I didnt want to say too much, but I had high hopes going into Valenciana and the riders delivered.

As you know I have spoken myself warm about Buitrago and my thoughts on him going into this season. Good start.

Almeida finishing 2nd overall is also promising.

Add Arensman finishing 4th, Hindley 9th and Vader 19th... you cant complain about the outcome.

Anticipating the starts of S. Yates, Ciccone, Gall and Riccitello to see how they will get going.

Good start for you. Even if van Aert and Vingegaard will perform during the season as expected, you could compensate that, if your riders continue to perform like now..

 

[Squire]

I didnt want to say too much, but I had high hopes going into Valenciana and the riders delivered.

As you know I have spoken myself warm about Buitrago and my thoughts on him going into this season. Good start.

Almeida finishing 2nd overall is also promising.

Add Arensman finishing 4th, Hindley 9th and Vader 19th... you cant complain about the outcome.

Anticipating the starts of S. Yates, Ciccone, Gall and Riccitello to see how they will get going.

Normally one has to be careful not to get too enthusiastic on behalf of riders based on the first few weeks of the season, but I have a feeling Buitrago will do very good things for your team. You already had me somewhat convinced when you talked about him before the season, and in this race he was imperious.

A very mixed bag for me this week. It's nice to have Almeida score points immediately, but considering he should have had this race in the bag, it's a bit disappointing that he didn't get the 50-odd points extra. Magnier starting off in good shape is promising, and I guess he didn't miss out on that many points by leaving the race. Penhoët also looks okay, and he wasn't expected to score much in Bessèges anyway. Nordhagen and Lafay getting ill and not racing in Oman and Bessèges respectively was a bummer, and the same with Vine and Hayter being nowhere in today's Oman stage. Alexander Kamp seems totally out of shape, but I didn't really expect him to have Valverde consistency, so no alarm bells yet.

So I'm scoring some decent points, but I had definitely hoped for more this week (and next, with Oman continuing).

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Ala would be 94,17% I think in that year.

Bernal would be 87,38%. So still pretty high on such a list, as I said. He was just a popular pick that I thought of, that would make such a list that Anderis was asking about.

We have three riders on 41 of 42 (97.62%) teams in the most recently started cycle of the Emerging Riders Game (Torres, Nordhagen and Withen Philipsen) I think we were up to about 37 entries, and only a few hours before the deadline, before the only non-Torres team came in, so I really thought we were on for a universal pick.

Lars van der Haar and Fem van Empel were both ubiquitous picks in the Cyclocross game 2023-24, but there were only 7 teams and not a proper budget system.

 

[Salvarani]

Normally one has to be careful not to get too enthusiastic on behalf of riders based on the first few weeks of the season, but I have a feeling Buitrago will do very good things for your team. You already had me somewhat convinced when you talked about him before the season, and in this race he was imperious.

A very mixed bag for me this week. It's nice to have Almeida score points immediately, but considering he should have had this race in the bag, it's a bit disappointing that he didn't get the 50-odd points extra. Magnier starting off in good shape is promising, and I guess he didn't miss out on that many points by leaving the race. Penhoët also looks okay, and he wasn't expected to score much in Bessèges anyway. Nordhagen and Lafay getting ill and not racing in Oman and Bessèges respectively was a bummer, and the same with Vine and Hayter being nowhere in today's Oman stage. Alexander Kamp seems totally out of shape, but I didn't really expect him to have Valverde consistency, so no alarm bells yet.

So I'm scoring some decent points, but I had definitely hoped for more this week (and next, with Oman continuing).

Yes, it is early doors and you really cant take anything for granted in this game.

As a fellow Almeida-owner, I think as long as he is consistently scoring. Podium or best case scenario winning a couple of races. He will turn out to be a good pick, with potential to score a decent profit. Following up with strong performances in Algarve and P-N would be welcome.

 

[Squire]

As a fellow Almeida-owner, I think as long as he is consistently scoring. Podium or best case scenario winning a couple of races. He will turn out to be a good pick, with potential to score a decent profit. Following up with strong performances in Algarve and P-N would be welcome.

Yeah, I said in my team presentation that I thought he could potentially podium all the stage races he does before the Tour. He's still en route for that, so it's all good so far. Just a bit annoying the way the race developed.

In any case, the coming week looks like this for me (and might not be the most fruitful one):

Tour of Oman (2.Pro)
VINE Jay
HAYTER Ethan
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian

Already a disaster, pretty much. What Blobloblo does won't make a difference.

Tour de la Provence (2.1)
PENHOËT Paul

Incomplete startlist, but should be less competition for Penhoët compared to Bessèges, so hopefully he can get a sprint result or two.

Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia (1.1)
STAUNE-MITTET Johannes
KAJAMINI Florian Samuel

No expectations here, really. Kajamini would normally be suited to this, but finished way down in his one race so far.

Figueira Champions Classic (1.Pro)
ALMEIDA João
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao
MAGNIER Paul

Again incomplete startlist, but I don't think any more of my guys will be added. There's a chance it's not hard enough for Almeida and TGH, and too hard for Magnier. The scenery is great though.

Clasica de Almeria (1.Pro)
SÉNÉCHAL Florian

The ultimate CQ farm race. Unfortunately I don't really have anyone for it. Was hoping for De Schuyteneer, but Lotto go with De Lie for this one. Sénéchal will work for Demare.

 

[Earns1985]

Already a disaster, pretty much. What Blobloblo does won't make a difference.

Two out of the current Top3 overall don´t have him, so he is not completely irrelevant..

 

[Squire]

Two out of the current Top3 overall don´t have him, so he is not completely irrelevant..

Oh, I thought he was more popular than just being on roughly 80% of the teams. That does indeed make a little bit of a difference, then.

 

[Shakes]

Probably only entertaining myself but... While not implemented throughout yet but now support for multiple games for main ranking at least:

CQ Cycling Game - 2025: GC

Direct link shows last years game result. Changing top right hand drop down box you can change to current year. Later when other games are added that will be the main toggle to switch views. Team page is also reflected this (except for green jersey and polka dot on there), others do not yet. Probably a Friday task!

 

[armchairclimber]

Reasonably happy with being in the top 30, though I too was hit by the Lafay and Nordhagen illness, plus several drop outs in Besseges.
No idea what this week will bring. Almost certainly "not a lot". I can only hope for Bittner points tomorrow and some Uijtdebroeks GC bits.

Provence just Penhoet and Chamberlain. Hoping young Oscar shows something.

Just Brunel in Murcia, though he has shown promise of being back to a decent level.

Brunel and Krijnsen in Almeria

Currently no-one listed in Portugal.

I guess I might get some effin work done this week then.

 

[Wvv]

Well, you can hardly say the game started well for me...

At least I'm still in the top 100.

 

[hayneplane]

A very busy two weeks coming up with a few one day races that are nice point gathering events and then 3 stage races running simultaneously.

If Tao can show some flickers and Wout Van Aert and Isaac Del Toro show early form things will be looking much better.

 

[skidmark]

Update #3: Salvarani ran away with it

Generally it was a quiet week in the CQ game, with the much-reduced Etoile de Besseges 2.1 race and the 2.PS Valenciana race both filled with rare riders in the top spots. But if you were one of the owners with some of these riders, you had your turn in the spotlight this week!

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Salvarani	514
2	peixotini	329
3	hayneplane	295
4	Mountain_Newts	228
5	Mushroom	207
5	Squire	207

Salvarani is the only team to top 400 points this week, let alone 500, making this week a relative blowout. Their team was one of the two that chose Santiago Buitrago (223 points), one of the four that chose Joao Almeida (140), one of the five that chose Thymen Arensman (84), and one of 16 who has Jai Hindley (45). A winning cluster for the week!

peixotini ends up in 2nd place almost 200 points back, but still with a good week thanks to Almeida, Arensman and Dylan Teuns (85, 3), whereas hayneplane lands the last podium spot thanks mostly to Buitrago but also with contributions from Magnier (37, 37), Cavagna (25, 52) and F. Vermeersch (10, 74).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	hayneplane	(+28)
2	Mountain_Newts	(+21)
3	Mushroom	(+16)
4	peixotini	(+13)
5	18-Valve. (pithy)	(+12)
5	slow_climber	(+12)
5	Squire	(+12)

hayneplane is the only double podium finisher, and ascends to the top step in this ranking, moving up a big ol' 28 spots in the overall. Mountain News moves up 21 thanks to Arensman and unique pick Rick Plumiers (83 points), while Mushroom has the third biggest rise of the week as an Ivan Romeo (75, 9) owner, as well as Magnier & Hindley.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Salvarani	65
2	marksi	61
3	peixotini	57
3	Jakob747	57
5	Lortnoc	49

Salvarani's 45 points on top of 20 points in week 1 put their team in the pole position here, while last week's winner marksi is close behind. peixotini (35 points this week, 22 points last week) ties with Jakob747, who has scored in all 3 weeks, for third.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+1)	Jakob747	1269
2	(-1)	DJ Sprtsch	1251
3	(+10)	Salvarani	1233
4	(-1)	marksi	1161
5	(-1)	Lortnoc	1071
6	(-1)	Gotland	1048
7	(+13)	peixotini	973
8	(+1)	skidmark	922
9	(-3)	Object	914
10	(-3)	ingsve	841

Jakob747's scoring consistency is enough to get their team in 1st overall by 18 points, knocking DJ Sprtsch from the top perch after 2 weeks leading. Salvarani's great week brings their team only another 18 back in 3rd. Their team and peixotini enter the top 10 at the expense of the asian and triley36.

This week, we have the 2.PS Tour of Oman wrapping up mid-week, the 3-day, 2.1 Tour of Provence going through the weekend, with a trio of 1-day races this weekend in Spain and Portugal.

spreadsheet link

 

[RedheadDane]

My riders for the rest of the week's races:

Provence:
Kragh

Almeria:
Foldager
Norsgaard

Figueia:
Asgreen
(Startlist incomplete)

 

[manafana]

Big GC men not really in Provence, Pedersen possible to win a GC like this?

 

[RedheadDane]

Hellemose into profit!