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.

 

[RedheadDane]

Last week starting out so promising, and then it just kinda went "Meh!"...

Wallin gets 48 points for his 2nd in Antwerp, gong into profit.
Salby takes home a combined 24 points from Dongying.
Hellemose, Valgren, Foldager, and Cort each takes home 5 "well, at least he finished" points from Dauphine.
Lund gets 7 points for 14th in Antwerp.
And Breiner gets 5 points for 16th in Antwerp.

Can we just all agree to pretend this weekend's one-day races in Belgium didn't happen? No? Awww...

Hopefully, this week will be better, with my guys being inspiring by riding on home roads Sunday.




(Note; when you select a rider, make sure he's not dealing with the complications of a broken back...)

 

[Earns1985]

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.

Yes, a rock solid week for me!

It was about time, that my team came out of the slipstream and shows something.
@Shakes Page shows a weekly win for me and 18 places up in the overall ranking!

In addition to this week's results, I am also pleased with the overall performance and the prospects of my riders.

As Vingegaard's performance was more or less as expected, Lipowitz performance was so outstanding, he could really become a game changing pick, if he maintains his form for the tour and, above all also afterwards in the autumn. Also Magnier really nice to see. After a good season start, he struggled in March, April and May during the giro. Hopefully the giro had been enough World Tour stage racing now for him this year, and Soudal will continue to use him in these small sprinter friendly One-Day races.

This week all my hopes are on Gall and Riccitello. (which could of course end in a highly dissapointment once again, but let´s see )

 

[Qazaqstan]

@SafeBet will be my reference team. This team is the first Vingegaard team and just like me, has Van Aert, Brennan, Magnier, Gruel and Del Grosso. I am 1000 points ahead. I expect another 2000 points from Vingegaard, so my other riders (Gregoire, Healy, Gall, Gee) need to bring in another 1000 points

Same for @Devil's Elbow . Both are catching up really quickly! Hopefully, Gregoire (Suisse) and Ganna (Belgium) will increase the gap a bit

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Update #21: Earns earns the win

The Dauphiné week is always a fun one on the road and in CQ terms. Vingegaard had a good week with other popular picks all over the top 10 in the GC. Elsewhere Magnier is back to early season form and the Tour de Suisse is off to a flying start.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	Earns1985​	969​
2​	Popchu​	928​
3​	Devils_Elbow​	890​
4​	Jakob747​	857​
5​	Squire​	849​

Earns1985 tops the charts, coming very close to a thousand points week. Vingegaard and Magnier obviously feature on the team as well as Lipowitz, Seixas and Tulett. Popchu is the other manager to cross the 900 points barrier and impressively does it without Vingegaard (Magnier, Lipowitz, Johannessen, Del Grosso, Seixas, Tulett...). Devil's Elbow completes the podium (Vingegaard, Magnier, Del Grosso, Seixas, Tulett). Long time participants Jakob747 (with a nice stage win from rare pick Ivan Romeo) and squire complete the top 5.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	Earns1985​	(+19)​
2​	Kazistuta​	(+16)​
3​	Berflamand​	(+15)​
4​	Wvv​	(+13)​
5​	Squire​	(+12)​
5​	EvansIsTheBest​	(+12)​

Earns1985 moves up nearly 20 spots. Kazistuta's dominant Dauphiné showing (Vingegaard, Lipowitz, Johannessen) helps their team vault up 16 places. Berflamand, wvv, squire and EITB all build their rise on the back of the Vingegaard/Magnier/Seixas/Tulett quartet.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Pantani4ever​	273​
2​	Salvarani​	240​
3​	Rufs​	208​
4​	Qazaqstan​	147​
5​	Devils_Elbow​	136​

Devil's Elbow grabs 30 points this week and edges out squire and hayneplane by one point for the 5th spot. Pantani4ever is a solid leader but perhaps the Vingegaard teams can mount a challenge in the coming weeks.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​
1​	Salvarani​	8214​
2​	Qazaqstan​	7813​
3​	postmanhat​	7618​
4​	Senderos​	7540​
5​	slow_climber​	7482​
6​	triley36​	7433​
7​	abbulf​	7358​
8​	Devils_Elbow​	7212​
9​	hayneplane​	7184​
10​	SafeBet​	7163​

Qazaqstan wipes out three hundred points off Salvarani's lead. Perhaps even more ominously, Devil's Elbow, the best ranked Vingegaard team has rocketed up to 8th. Salvarani's position isn't in jeopardy yet but the rest of the field is applying more pressure than it has in weeks. Slow climber and SafeBet also enter the top ten while search, Madrazo and Rufs slip out. Fortunately for them the Tour de Suisse offers an immediate opportunity to bounce back.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

 

[Squire]

Thanks for the update! Good week for me as expected!

Salvarani won't have much trouble defending his lead in the coming week though. With Almeida, Gall and Riccitello, they are a big favourite for a weekly win.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Update #21: Earns earns the win

The Dauphiné week is always a fun one on the road and in CQ terms. Vingegaard had a good week with other popular picks all over the top 10 in the GC. Elsewhere Magnier is back to early season form and the Tour de Suisse is off to a flying start.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank​	Team​	Points this week​
1​	Earns1985​	969​
2​	Popchu​	928​
3​	Devils_Elbow​	890​
4​	Jakob747​	857​
5​	Squire​	849​

Earns1985 tops the charts, coming very close to a thousand points week. Vingegaard and Magnier obviously feature on the team as well as Lipowitz, Seixas and Tulett. Popchu is the other manager to cross the 900 points barrier and impressively does it without Vingegaard (Magnier, Lipowitz, Johannessen, Del Grosso, Seixas, Tulett...). Devil's Elbow completes the podium (Vingegaard, Magnier, Del Grosso, Seixas, Tulett). Long time participants Jakob747 (with a nice stage win from rare pick Ivan Romeo) and squire complete the top 5.

This Week's High Movers

Rank​	Team​	Up/down​
1​	Earns1985​	(+19)​
2​	Kazistuta​	(+16)​
3​	Berflamand​	(+15)​
4​	Wvv​	(+13)​
5​	Squire​	(+12)​
5​	EvansIsTheBest​	(+12)​

Earns1985 moves up nearly 20 spots. Kazistuta's dominant Dauphiné showing (Vingegaard, Lipowitz, Johannessen) helps their team vault up 16 places. Berflamand, wvv, squire and EITB all build their rise on the back of the Vingegaard/Magnier/Seixas/Tulett quartet.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank​	Team​	Total​
1​	Pantani4ever​	273​
2​	Salvarani​	240​
3​	Rufs​	208​
4​	Qazaqstan​	147​
5​	Devils_Elbow​	136​

Devil's Elbow grabs 30 points this week and edges out squire and hayneplane by one point for the 5th spot. Pantani4ever is a solid leader but perhaps the Vingegaard teams can mount a challenge in the coming weeks.

Top 10 Overall

Rank​	Team​	Points​
1​	Salvarani​	8214​
2​	Qazaqstan​	7813​
3​	postmanhat​	7618​
4​	Senderos​	7540​
5​	slow_climber​	7482​
6​	triley36​	7433​
7​	abbulf​	7358​
8​	Devils_Elbow​	7212​
9​	hayneplane​	7184​
10​	SafeBet​	7163​

Qazaqstan wipes out three hundred points off Salvarani's lead. Perhaps even more ominously, Devil's Elbow, the best ranked Vingegaard team has rocketed up to 8th. Salvarani's position isn't in jeopardy yet but the rest of the field is applying more pressure than it has in weeks. Slow climber and SafeBet also enter the top ten while search, Madrazo and Rufs slip out. Fortunately for them the Tour de Suisse offers an immediate opportunity to bounce back.

spreadsheet link (xlsx version)

spreadsheet link (ods version)

Nyssinator seems to have completely disappeared from the rankings in the spreadsheet in the past two weeks?