The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Armchair Cyclist]

It is of the nature of these games that they are passive: once your team has been sent in, all you can do is sit back and watch to see how they do.

While I can't change that, I can offer you another chance to think and choose, and then just watch and hope: the Giro CQ Game is fully ready to go.

 

[Earns1985]

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.)

Well, this year @Salvarani already has a more than 500 points lead right now..
Looking at his team with riders like Arensman, Ciccone, Hindley, S. Yates and Vine , I think he will also stay there during the giro and also after the giro GC update.

 

[Netserk]

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.

Agreed fully. It was not clear to me that he'd be a good pick, so in that sense he has surprised positively. In hindsight, I don't think his top level (so far), schedule nor competition should have been a surprise, but maintaining good form from February 5 to May 4 consistently without any bad luck and only a little illness in PN was not what I expected. Then again, he's not a rider I care about much so I just didn't consider his case. Having faith that he could combine the consistency from his Giro schedule and his top level from his Tour schedule last year has been proven right.

 

[Earns1985]

Kooij finally fit for the giro is not good news for van Aert owners..

 

[Earns1985]

Victor Lafay had been dealing with recurring knee pain that required surgery. The procedure was successfully carried out on Monday. Victor will now take a month-long break to recover before resuming training. His return to competition is expected in August.

Victor Lafay had been dealing with a recurring knee pain that required surgery. The procedure was successfully carried out on Monday. He will now take a month-long break to recover before resuming training. His return to racing is expected in August.

 

[RedheadDane]

108th Giro d'Italia

Kasper Asgreen
Mikkel Frølich Honoré
Søren Kragh Andersen

So, errr... guys... if you could just finish, that'd be nice.

Those French One-Day Races

Blume
Norsgaard
Stokbro
Søjberg

Decided to just list all those races together, as I don't think I have any riders who're gonna set anything on fire down there.

 

[Salvarani]

108th Giro d'Italia

Kasper Asgreen
Mikkel Frølich Honoré
Søren Kragh Andersen

So, errr... guys... if you could just finish, that'd be nice.

Those French One-Day Races

Blume
Norsgaard
Stokbro
Søjberg

Decided to just list all those races together, as I don't think I have any riders who're gonna set anything on fire down there.

Lets say that if you lived in South Africa, would say up there instead?

 

[RedheadDane]

Lets say that if you lived in South Africa, would say up there instead?

Yeah, but I don't.

 

[Salvarani]

Yeah, but I don't.

Okay, but I thought of something else. Do you live further above the sea than what the races in France are located? Maybe you should really be saying up there anyway.

 

[RedheadDane]

Okay, but I thought of something else. Do you live further above the sea than what the races in France are located? Maybe you should really be saying up there anyway.

North = up
South = down
I'll say "up" about the Norwegian races.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update #15: Second salvo from Salvarani

Romandie dominated the week as we moved away from the classics but rather than crowning new teams we saw some familiar names at the top.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	Salvarani​	949​
2​	Squire​	928​
3​	skidmark​	724​
4​	armchairclimber​	634​
5​	Object​	596​

Salvarani scores back to back weekly wins on the back of the Almeida/Vine duo and a bunch of talented youngsters (A.W. Philipsen, Brennan, Nordhagen and Rondel). Squire, usually a fixture in these updates has been more quiet this year but nearly pips Salvarani here, swapping out Brennan and Rondel with Del Grosso and Staune-Mittet. Two time former winner skidmark is a distant third (with a similar supporting cast but missing Vine).

Armchairclimber takes the fourth spot thanks to the rare duo of Lenny Martinez and Juan Guillermo Martinez. Another former winner in Object is fifth.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	Squire​	(+20)​
2​	Object​	(+16)​
3​	Crevaison​	(+14)​
4​	skidmark​	(+11)​
5​	Popchu​	(+11)​

Obviously Salvarani doesn't feature here (seeing as their team was already in first place) so we can see someone else shine for a change. Squire rockets up 20 spots. Skidmark and Object feature again. Crevaison (Lenny Martinez) and Popchu (Jay Vine) complete the top 5.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Salvarani​	234​
2​	Pantani4ever​	176​
3​	Rufs​	147​
4​	Qazaqstan​	145​
5​	search​	131​

Salvarani is threatening to run away with this competition with only three teams within two weekly wins from the lead. Meanwhile, lower down, skidmark is up to 6th.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​
1​	Salvarani​	6547​
2​	postmanhat​	5974​
3​	MADRAZO​	5760​
4​	Qazaqstan​	5713​
5​	manafana​	5651​
6​	search​	5630​
7​	slow_climber​	5597​
8​	peixotini​	5559​
9​	abbulf​	5446​
10​	will10​	5333​

Salvarani stretches the lead to nearly 600 points and now we wait to see if someone can reel them in or if it's going to be a dominant display to the finish like shalgo and Blues in the Bottle in previous years. Abbulf moves into the top 10 while Rufs makes way. But that might be temporary with the juicy Giro points on the horizon.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

 

[Squire]

Thanks for the update! I can report that the xlsx version works for me now without needing to download it.

Happy with a 2nd on the week! Almeida keeps delivering and Vine is finally doing what I picked him for. Nordhagen looking decent too. With how half of my team has gone missing, I need some weeks like this.

Gonna be tough times ahead though. All the Ayuso teams in the top 10 might have a good month of May. I just got to hope that they don't pull away too much before Almeida and Vingegaard starts riding again. Guess I need to begrudgingly cheer for Roglic. At least I'm the 2nd best placed Vingegaard team (just behind Devil's Elbow), which is somewhat encouraging.

 

[RedheadDane]

Right, as I expected; not exactly fireworks from my riders last week, neither from those in Italy errr Albania, nor from those in France.
Let's see if this week can bring about... something...

Still have my three guys in Italy.

Dunkerque

Bévort
Blume
Lund
Nielsen
Norsgaard
Pedersen
Søjberg

Hopefully, Lund will be able to sprint to some good results. Søjberg of course isn't slow either.

Hongrie

Charmig
Wandahl

Now, this is of course the race where my wish - as expressed in the Bora thread - that Wandahl, rather than doing the Giro, should ride his own chance in several races should come to fruition!
Charmig rides for Astana, so they'll - hopefully - be scoring across the board.

 

[hayneplane]

Can any long term players remember such a universally low scoring weekly update as this one.

 

[SafeBet]

Can any long term players remember such a universally low scoring weekly update as this one.

Anything between end of March and June 2020?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Can any long term players remember such a universally low scoring weekly update as this one.

Every single week featuring the Grand Départ, for starters.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update #16: It's a Mads, Mads world

It was a rather quiet week headlined by the Tro Bro Leon and a small bike race getting underway in Albania where Mads Pedersen was up to his usual stellar form.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	Rufs​	244​
2​	Mountain_Newts​	234​
3​	Pantani4ever​	213​
4​	Josedin​	206​
5​	greenedge​	200​

Rufs wins the week with over 90% of their points coming from the Mads Pedersen/Wout Van Aert duo. Mountain Newts is second on the week behind the efforts of Lewis Askey, Rasmus Tiller and Wout Van Aert. Pantani4ever also uses the Askey/Tiller duo to score a podium spot.

Josedin nabs fourth thanks to a monster week from unique pick Bastien Tronchon. Greenedge is fifth courtesy of Tarling, Turgis, Van Aert and Leknessund.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	SafeBet​	(+6)​
2​	Mountain_Newts​	(+5)​
3​	ingsve​	(+4)​
3​	DJW​	(+4)​
5​	Rufs​	(+3)​
5​	Pantani4ever​	(+3)​
5​	Leadbelly​	(+3)​
5​	escartin​	(+3)​
5​	greenedge​	(+3)​

Not much movement obviously due to the low weekly totals. SafeBet tops the charts here with their risky investment in Tarling and Van Aert paying dividends (at least for this week).

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Salvarani​	234​
2​	Pantani4ever​	206​
3​	Rufs​	192​
4​	Qazaqstan​	145​
5​	search​	131​

Rufs and Pantani4ever were two of the closest competitors of Salvarani and use their good weeks to close part of the gap. It's not hard to imagine Rufs using another good couple weeks from Pedersen to really pile on the pressure.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​
1​	Salvarani​	6574​
2​	postmanhat​	6034​
3​	MADRAZO​	5812​
4​	Qazaqstan​	5765​
5​	manafana​	5692​
6​	search​	5673​
7​	slow_climber​	5619​
8​	peixotini​	5574​
9​	abbulf​	5525​
10​	will10​	5451​

Nobody in the top 10 moved up or down even a single spot. In fact will10, in tenth (you can't make this stuff up), is the only top 10 team to crack triple digits this week. Which was rather inspired because Rufs furious charge up the rankings left them just 20 points short of unseating them in the top 10.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

 

[RedheadDane]

Kragh out of the Giro.
Søjberg out of Dunkerque.
Wandahl out of Hongrie.

This is absolutely horrible for my team...

At least Lund and Withen are doing decently in their respective races.

 

[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..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

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 essentially this Giro GC haul is likely to be all about the rich getting richer. Happy at least that I am the fourth team in the top-20 with Ciccone, although a big GC result here is not necessarily what I picked him for and I'm still not particularly confident in him pulling it off.

 

[Earns1985]

So essentially this Giro GC haul is likely to be all about the rich getting richer. Happy at least that I am the fourth team in the top-20 with Ciccone, although a big GC result here is not necessarily what I picked him for and I'm still not particularly confident in him pulling it off.

Yeah well, the del Toro owners and also the Tiberi owners could climb up, as they are not that high right now in the overall ranking. Best del Toro owner is @Nyssinator at 16th overall. Best Tiberi owner is @Rufs 9th overall.

But yeah the Ayuso owners of course had already a really good spring, so there it´s really about the rich getting richer. Same a bit for Ciccone.

I am personally this year more in the spectator role, as I really have nobody in the current top20 overall.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

My dream of Andrea Pasqualon scoring more points than last year purely by making it to the end of WT races has taken a hit after he was the only guy who crashed out yesterday.

 

[Squire]

I am personally this year more in the spectator role, as I really have nobody in the current top20 overall.

My best rider in the Giro GC is in 81st.