The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Earns1985]

J. Christen and del Toro both in the line-up for GP Industria. Well at least there is a bit of competition with Carapaz, Hirschi, Storer...

 

[Squire]

Update #32: Squire is king for a week

The Vuelta was the main attraction this week, with GP Bretagne also offering World Tour points amidst a few other smaller races.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Squire	513
2	oliveira	488
3	Wvv	485
4	18-Valve. (pithy)	477
5	Berflamand	467
5	letstalkcycling	467

Squire is the only team to top 500 points this week, thanks chiefly to the finally-paying-off Jonas Vingegaard (141 points, 33 teams), but also some solid returns from Paul Magnier (96, 37), Jay Vine (70, 11) and Paul Seixas (66, 66). oliveira ends up 25 points back with Vingegaard/Magnier/Seixas as well as Juan Ayuso (87, 11). Wvv ends up in third place with Vingegaard/Magnier, and 3 of the top 4 in the Tour d'Avenir in Seixas, Jarno Widar (54, 37) and Lorenzo Finn (24, 8).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	oliveira	(+5)
1	Wvv	(+5)
3	Berflamand	(+4)
3	hfgon1	(+4)
3	Squire	(+4)

The table is flipped here, as Squire 'only' moves up 4 spots to the massive 5 moved up by the runners up in the other ranking, oliveira and Wvv.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Pantani4ever	316
2	Salvarani	309
3	Rufs	239
4	Squire	230.7
5	Devils_Elbow	226

The undercard of this ranking roils around every week, but the two at the top still have quite a bit of a cushion. Squire's 45 points lead their team into the top 5, and Devil's Elbow picks up 6 points on the week to stay pretty close to that third spot, but 3rd-5th would still have to win two more weeks without the top 2 scoring to take over.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Salvarani	12617
2	(+1)	Devils_Elbow	11942
3	(+2)	SafeBet	11877
4	(-2)	Qazaqstan	11821
5	(-1)	postmanhat	11817
6	(-)	triley36	11504
7	(-)	Popchu	11492
8	(-)	Earns1985	11471
9	(+4)	Squire	11443
10	(+4)	Berflamand	11328

Some shuffling below Salvarani, who has a still substantial but shrinking 675 point lead, with Devil's Elbow and SafeBet overtaking Qazaqstan. Further below, weekly winner Squire re-enters the top 10 alongside Berflamand, while slow climber and Senderos fall out.

This week, the second week of the Vuelta continues, the Tour of Britain is underway, and there are a couple of 1.PS races in the USA and Italy.

spreadsheet link

Good stuff!

Maybe another good week upcoming, with the Vingegaard show continuing and Vine having already bagged another one. Wouldn't mind a Dunbar stage win either.

For Britain I have some high potential but extremely unreliable riders, like Lafay, Vader and Gloag. But the most likely outcome is that the race will be a net benefit for my competitors, as Brennan keeps brennaning.

Hopefully De Schuyteneer has learnt some farming skills from De Lie. At least he is off to a good start in Istanbul.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Salvarani with five riders in the top eight of the virtual Vuelta GC after today. The fat lady isn't singing just yet, but she's clearing her throat.

 

[Squire]

For Britain I have some high potential but extremely unreliable riders, like Lafay, Vader and Gloag. But the most likely outcome is that the race will be a net benefit for my competitors, as Brennan keeps brennaning.

So 1/3 delivered. Luckily it was the most rare one out of the three. Lafay 10 minutes down. Starting to doubt whether he will ever find some form this season.

 

[Earns1985]

Salvarani with five riders in the top eight of the virtual Vuelta GC after today. The fat lady isn't singing just yet, but she's clearing her throat.

Ciccone out of the GC today.. so only four riders for Salvarani in the top ranks.
I have Vingegaard instead of Almeida and Hindley. @Squire has Vingegaard instead of Gall and Hindley. If Vingegeaard finish it and with mountain and point classification points in the end, we are the only teams, that will not lose at least that much with the vuelta GC..

 

[Qazaqstan]

I'm falling back in the ranking, but I still believe in a top 5. Gregoire still leading the classification in Brittain, while also on the starting list for Luxembourg

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

It would be nice if Piganzoli could sustain this form during the remaining Italian one day races.

 

[RedheadDane]

Maryland:
Blume 11th: 20 points.

Shanghai:
Salby 3rd in GC and a stage: 18 points.

Britain:
Stokbro 40th in GC: 5 points.

Naaah, I don' think there were any other races happening this week.

 

[Squire]

Maryland:
Blume 11th: 20 points.

Shanghai:
Salby 3rd in GC and a stage: 18 points.

Britain:
Stokbro 40th in GC: 5 points.

Naaah, I don' think there were any other races happening this week.

A shame there haven't been any other Danish riders scoring any significant points this week ...

 

[manafana]

So Dinham is back in Europe a very small chance he might race again this year now

 

[RedheadDane]

A shame there haven't been any other Danish riders scoring any significant points this week ...

For the purpose of this game, those guys don't exist.

 

[shalgo]

For the purpose of this game, those guys don't exist.

Even the guy who is part of 33 teams?

 

[RedheadDane]

Even the guy who is part of 33 teams?

Does not exist.

(I generally don't like having too much of my budget taken up by just a few riders.)

 

[Earns1985]

del Toro and J.Christen both scheduled for this weekend in Italy (Trofeo Matteotti)..

Should mean, that they will also race Toscana, Sabatini and Memorial Pantani..

 

[hayneplane]

del Toro and J.Christen both scheduled for this weekend in Italy (Trofeo Matteotti)..

Should mean, that they will also race Toscana, Sabatini and Memorial Pantani..

Del Toro is going on a Hirschi 2024 points farming feast.

 

[Squire]

Del Toro is going on a Hirschi 2024 points farming feast.

It was clear someone was going to take over that role, but it was hard to predict who. Kudos to those who picked Del Toro.

I had a good think about possible new Hirschis when picking my team. Christen was the most 'obvious' candidate, and the one I considered the most. But he was a bit expensive for his age, and his lack of explosivity made me think he wouldn't be as lethal as Hirschi even with a great schedule. I could see more of the 2024 Frankfurt scenario happening.

Other candidates were Narvaez (too expensive), Morgado (too unreliable) and Covi (not good enough). I didn't really expect Del Toro to be such a great one-day racer and especially not for him to have this incredibly juicy schedule. He was also very expensive and him going a bit missing for the second half of 2024 didn't fill me with confidence.

From UAE I only ended up picking Almeida and Vine (and Vermeersch and Torres, but those two were mandatory). None of those were with any hirschiing in mind though. Almeida because of his mid-2024 improvement and super juicy schedule and Vine because of cheap Aussie points and hopefully some easy stage races later on as well. The latter hasn't quite happened with Vine (or, it did happen but he didn't deliver), but he's doing just fine as a 'domestique' in the Vuelta anyway and is turning out to be an okay pick.

 

[repre]

Del Toro is going on a Hirschi 2024 points farming feast.

And he is actually great.

 

[skidmark]

Update #33: Squire on fire

Another Vuelta week, another weekly winner - oh, wait, it's a repeat winner! Good CQ picks tend to compound in GT weekly rankings, so this week looks a bit like last week...

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Squire	490
2	SafeBet	486
3	Salvarani	474
4	HoudiniCycling	468
5	EvansIsTheBest	457

It's very close at the top this week, with 33 points separating the top 5, but after a win last week, Squire has just enough to pull the double, scoring 490 on the week. This is definitely thanks to a top-heavy trio from the Vuelta, with Jonas Vingegaard (188 points, 33 teams) leading the way, but the UAE duo of Joao Almeida (96, 4) and Jay Vine (73, 11) also having a say. SafeBet finishes a mere 4 points behind as a Vingegaard holder, and also being one of the 8 teams who won the educated-guess lottery with Isaac Del Toro (130 more this week). Uh oh, looks like Salvarani is adding to the pile of gold their team is already sitting on, getting 3rd without Vingegaard but doing JUST FINE with Almeida/Vine and also just solid contributions from Jai Hindley (45, 16), Matt Brennan (45, 33), Stefan De Schuyteneer (42, 20) and Tom Gloag (40, 62).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	ingsve	(+7)
2	oliveira	(+5)
2	Amis_Velo	(+5)
4	shalgo	(+4)
5	hfgon1	(+3)
5	Squire	(+3)
5	HoudiniCycling	(+3)
5	zigzag_wanderer	(+3)
5	letstalkcycling	(+3)
5	skidmark	(+3)
5	peixotini	(+3)

Not a lot of movement in a transitional week this late in the season, but first-edition CQ game winner ingsve makes a mark by moving up 7 spots with Vingegaard/Gloag and Mauro Schmid (52, 10) on the roster, while oliveira and Amis Velo rounding out the podium.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Salvarani	339
2	Pantani4ever	316
3	Squire	275.7
4	Devils_Elbow	242
5	Rufs	239

Finally, something goes right this season for Salvarani. Their team was trailing by 7 points coming into this week, but gets 30 to leapfrog Pantani4ever for the lead in the points competition. Watch out for Squire though, coming off 90 points in the last two weeks and less than a weekly win out of 2nd, and 64 points out of first. Devil's Elbow also picks up 16 points this week lower down.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Salvarani	13091
2	(+1)	SafeBet	12363
3	(-1)	Devils_Elbow	12357
4	(-)	Qazaqstan	12148
5	(-)	postmanhat	12106
6	(+3)	Squire	11933
7	(+1)	Earns1985	11803
8	(-2)	triley36	11798
9	(-2)	Popchu	11710
10	(-)	Berflamand	11691

Salvarani's great week sees their lead stabilize, although 2nd place SafeBet actually gained 12 points this week (although prior 2nd place Devil's Elbow loses almost 60 so it's a net gain for Salvarani on an already decent buffer). Squire's run nets their team a gain that puts them in spitting distance of the top 5, while further down there's some jockeying but no entries/exits from the top 10.

This week, the big GC points from the Vuelta come down, while the Canadian WT races and some patented Italian late-season one-day races are sure to give the Isaac Del Toro owners some more good weeks.

spreadsheet link

 

[Squire]

Wow, didn't realise I was on for another win! Thought the Mexican farmer could have a say there. Now the hat-trick is looking likely, barring some disaster in the Vuelta. Though I guess if Almeida overtakes Vingegaard and/or Hindley overtakes Pidcock, then Salvarani's Hindley/Gall combo could potentially outscore my Vingegaard.

 

[Earns1985]

I think sunday EoD (also including the Canadian races), we will get an idea, how the final overall classification could look like..
From there on it´s only 5 weeks left..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I think sunday EoD (also including the Canadian races), we will get an idea, how the final overall classification could look like..
From there on it´s only 5 weeks left..

I don't think the Canadian races will have that big of an impact this year. Seems like everyone and their mother have decided it's better to just avoid Pogacar, which has caused both an unusually weak field and a lack of popular picks other than Van Aert (and Nordhagen/Lafay, but neither will do much here).

Oh, and Nys ending his season because doing the Tour so shortly after getting sick has wrecked him is also not helping matters.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The entire top-6 of the overall is also in the top-8 of the green jersey. It's not exactly a season where the minor classification is doing much to justify its existence...

 

[Earns1985]

del Toro really has no chill..

@SafeBet is coming out of reach for me... even @triley36 will be tough to beat now..

 

[Earns1985]

I don't think the Canadian races will have that big of an impact this year. Seems like everyone and their mother have decided it's better to just avoid Pogacar, which has caused both an unusually weak field and a lack of popular picks other than Van Aert (and Nordhagen/Lafay, but neither will do much here).

Oh, and Nys ending his season because doing the Tour so shortly after getting sick has wrecked him is also not helping matters.

Well, Quebec is a race, where guys like van Aert, Matthews and de Lie could beat Pogacar. He never won this race yet. So potential for 220 points there.
In Montreal Pogacar will most likely win, but 132 for second place is stull something for guys like Lipowitz, S. Yates, Onley,...

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Jan Christen being Del Toro's domestique is going a lot better for UAE than my own team. At least Piganzoli will break even some time this week.