The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[RedheadDane]

Hmm... Mushroom has Romeo (who's not actually abad rider)... my time avoiding last place was nice while it lasted...
Edit: And they also have Seixas... I'm doomed! (Though, I've managed to stay ahead... for now...)

(Even though I got more points from Antwerp, than I got all last week.)

 

[postmanhat]

Powless may, or may not, turn out be a profitable pick, but so glad I took a punt on him for enjoyable days like these.

Very weak Dauphine team, so hoping for something similar from my other one-day riders at Hageland tomorrow to compensate

Brennan
Del Grosso
Tiller
Van Der hoorn
Van Gestel

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Pretty exciting week so far. Vingegaard has already two second places (three if you count Sunday) in Dauphiné and another two await, which should see him in the same spot on GC with some minor classification points as a bonus. Gippingen was also fairly good for me with Nys, Engelhardt and Bagioli. And then in Hageland I have Del Grosso, Van der Hoorn, Magnier, Brennan, Senechal and Vader with both Frenchmen also starting in Elfstedenronde the day after. So I should be up there in the weekly rankings and very close to (or maybe already into if I get lucky) the top-ten come Sunday.

 

[Squire]

Pretty exciting week so far. Vingegaard has already two second places (three if you count Sunday) in Dauphiné and another two await, which should see him in the same spot on GC with some minor classification points as a bonus. Gippingen was also fairly good for me with Nys, Engelhardt and Bagioli. And then in Hageland I have Del Grosso, Van der Hoorn, Magnier, Brennan, Senechal and Vader with both Frenchmen also starting in Elfstedenronde the day after. So I should be up there in the weekly rankings and very close to (or maybe already into if I get lucky) the top-ten come Sunday.

I don't have Nys or Engelhardt (only Bagioli in Gippingen for me), but I do have Dunbar who is well-placed on GC. But with how he imploded on the final climb today, I don't expect him to hang on to 6th place. I also have 3 mighty points from Penhoet. Why can't he do his decent sprint performances in one-day races instead of very un-profitable stage races.

We share Seixas and Tulett, but they are really popular, which is why you didn't mention them I guess.

 

[Netserk]

Pretty exciting week so far. Vingegaard has already two second places (three if you count Sunday) in Dauphiné and another two await, which should see him in the same spot on GC with some minor classification points as a bonus.

After today, he probably won't score as many points in the Tour as he did last year. Pogi better skip the Vuelta.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

We share Seixas and Tulett, but they are really popular, which is why you didn't mention them I guess.

I kind of assumed almost everyone who’s ahead of me has both.

Penhoët is definitely one of the riders on my shortlist for next year (in fact I almost picked him this year), never seen any sprinter on a French team be riding this inefficiently in terms of CQ points.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

After today, he probably won't score as many points in the Tour as he did last year. Pogi better skip the Vuelta.

Should still finish second on GC pretty comfortably (still likelier to win than finish third, even), should still be top-3 in every single one of the six GC days that don’t go to the break, should still be decently high up in the mountains classification because of the MTF overload, should still get some points out of the TT and HTFs. That looks like a pretty similar score to last year to me.

I will sadly be shocked if Pogacar skips the Vuelta. Better chance of Vingegaard both racing and scoring anything meaningful after the Vuelta, and I don’t like those odds either.

 

[abbulf]

Gippingen was a fun race, with Nys, Jan Christen, Schmid and Bagioli on my team. It was almost a bit too exciting when all four of them were in the 5 man break…

 

[Squire]

I do have Dunbar who is well-placed on GC. But with how he imploded on the final climb today, I don't expect him to hang on to 6th place.

I called it, but would have hoped/expected that he didn't drop all the way down to 17th ...

On the other hand, Magnier/Del Grosso 1st/3rd in Hageland is fantastic! And Sénéchal finally showing some signs of life (and getting 8 points) is nice to see.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Vingeggard/Magnier/Seixas/Tulett/Rondel/Christen. Should finally have good week.

 

[Squire]

Vingeggard/Magnier/Seixas/Tulett/Rondel/Christen. Should finally have good week.

And let's ride the Ricky Tello bandwagon for next week! A good showing from Bixiaux and Gloag would be nice too.

 

[Squire]

Magnier the magnificent starting to become a proper good pick! Really threading the needle in that sprint. Was sooo far back with only a couple of hundred metres to go.

 

[hayneplane]

Magnier the magnificent starting to become a proper good pick! Really threading the needle in that sprint. Was sooo far back with only a couple of hundred metres to go.

A very pleasantly surprising weekend. That Giro could have gone the other way a signalled a season about to be largely wasted but, despite having a poor Giro by results, he seems to have come out of it with grand tour super compensation form.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

There is one team in the game with all three of Vingegaard, Lipowitz and Magnier. Seems like a pretty solid week for Earns.

By my calculations, that team will deny me the weekly win, but I should just about be the first Vingegaard team to crack the top-10 in the standings.

Looking ahead to next week, O'Connor, Vauquelin and Castrillo being the main GC threats to benefit from today's Suisse shenanigans is great news for those of us without an expensive GC rider in action - they have been picked 0, 0 and 4 times respectively and the highest ranked Castrillo team is outside the top-50. Hard to say what Belgium will produce without a provisional startlist but Nys and Ganna will be two popular potential heavy scorers. Occitanie and the new Andorra race look like very little happening for the game (a crying shame given how good the routes are). And then it's anyone's guess as to which sprinters are actually lining up for the shiny new Copenhagen WT sprint that won't have any of the big three sprinters (sadly not Magnier, Soudal aren't starting). So it might be a relatively low-scoring week considering how many points are on offer.

 

[Squire]

A very pleasantly surprising weekend. That Giro could have gone the other way a signalled a season about to be largely wasted but, despite having a poor Giro by results, he seems to have come out of it with grand tour super compensation form.

Seems to be quite common for non-GC riders to get that effect from a GT (and especially their first one) as long as they're not exceptionally bad at recovery like Plapp for instance. But today's Magnier win was more about killer instinct than speed, which is really encouraging. He managed to find some almost non-existing gaps to launch past 10 or so riders in the last metres after the others had been in the wind for a bit.

Looking ahead to next week, O'Connor, Vauquelin and Castrillo being the main GC threats to benefit from today's Suisse shenanigans is great news for those of us without an expensive GC rider in action - they have been picked 0, 0 and 4 times respectively and the highest ranked Castrillo team is outside the top-50. Hard to say what Belgium will produce without a provisional startlist but Nys and Ganna will be two popular potential heavy scorers. Occitanie and the new Andorra race look like very little happening for the game (a crying shame given how good the routes are). And then it's anyone's guess as to which sprinters are actually lining up for the shiny new Copenhagen WT sprint that won't have any of the big three sprinters (sadly not Magnier, Soudal aren't starting). So it might be a relatively low-scoring week considering how many points are on offer.

I hadn't even noticed that Occitanie is back this year. Looks like some easy Piganzoli points for @EvansIsTheBest. JSM was taken off the Suisse startlist but is also not on the Occitanie team for AG2R. So he's probably ill or injured. Hopefully he can ride his 'home' race in Andorra, at least.

I still think Almeida can salvage the Suisse win to give me a good week, and Riccitello could still place as well as he would have anyway. Bisiaux and Gloag lost more time today unfortunately.

And despite Dauphiné being pretty good for me with Vingegaard returning, my riders lost a lot of GC positions on the final stage. It was of course very typical that two of the guys who crashed uphill on the final climb were Seixas and Dunbar who both tumbled down the GC a bit. Tulett absolutely exploded too, it seems, despite being among the few riders left in the group when the attacks started.