The 2025 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[SafeBet]

Could they make you a mod in name only just to circumvent this issue?

There are countless solutions but to me this is the one ensuring the highest participation rate.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Could they make you a mod in name only just to circumvent this issue?

We did propose this: I'm sure I speak for Cookster when I say we would have confidence in Skidmark to not abuse the status, but the 'higher-ups' were not keen. I'd be happy to ask again, and try to argue the advantages of it, but I'm not confident of a different answer.

3) Submit them through a mod somehow? That seems unwieldy but maybe there's something I'm not thinking of.

It wouldn't be very onerous to copy and paste team listings from one message to another (we moderators have also lost the capacity to copy others into a PM conversation), so that is a live option. (but don't be surprised if, in acknowledging your entries to Skidmarks game, I nag you to join my Women's and Emerging Riders' games that will be starting at about the same time.)

 

[RedheadDane]

(but don't be surprised if, in acknowledging your entries to Skidmarks game, I nag you to join my Women's and Emerging Riders' games that will be starting at about the same time.)

Well, the Women's Emerging Riders' game is Samu's game...

We did propose this: I'm sure I speak for Cookster when I say we would have confidence in Skidmark to not abuse the status, but the 'higher-ups' were not keen.

Why not?

 

[Shakes]

Game is kind of over so haven't prioritized fixing the site. Will do it before next season! As it happened at end of season I think it's due to I efficiencies in calculations as database probably got large and was made quickly and not super efficiënt.

Regarding team creation, I made something last year and can simplify it (to not require a login). Let me know if needed @skidmark

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I would consider making two options out of the three listed available, anything that goes against making it harder to submit should help with regards to participation levels.

 

[ingsve]

We did propose this: I'm sure I speak for Cookster when I say we would have confidence in Skidmark to not abuse the status, but the 'higher-ups' were not keen. I'd be happy to ask again, and try to argue the advantages of it, but I'm not confident of a different answer.

That sort of sounds like a no out of convenience. The easiest thing to do is to say no to things, even without compelling reasons for it, since you don't really risk anything by saying no. Perhaps if pressed to give a coherent reason for saying no it would make it harder to simply reject the proposal out of laziness and convenience.

 

[skidmark]

Update #39: SafeBet goes out swinging but Salvarani is the 2025 CQ Game champion

The cycling season came to a well-calibrated end this week, with two stage races (Tours of Holland and Guangxi) and 3 one-day races (Japan Cup, Chrono des Nations, Veneto Classic) finishing on Sunday. There was some typical end-of-season surprises (like Paul Double and Sakarias Loland beating more established riders), redemption stories (Laporte finally getting right after a horror season, Victor Lafay without a win but similar), and some deja vu (Magnier and Del Toro winning again and again). In the end, quite an eventful week!

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	SafeBet	983
2	triley36	951
3	Hugo Koblet	907
4	JPettersen	863
5	Squire	837

SafeBet ends in style, winning the final two weeks of the season and almost cracking 1000 points on the last week. This was headed by the two season-long superstars driving their team, with Paul Magnier (221 points, 37 teams) dominating Guangxi stages to crack 1500 points for the year, and Isaac Del Toro (130, 8) winning one more race to crack 3000 (!) for the season. As well, Victor Lafay (165, 36) and Jorgen Nordhagen (97, 52) got season-best results, and Cian Uijtdebroeks (84, 80), Josh Tarling (80, 14) and Florian Vermeersch (78, 74) pitching in too.

In second, triley36 is not far behind at 951 points, with a similar top group of Magnier/Del Toro/Lafay/Uijtebroeks/Tarling but the slightly lower scoring Hayter (52, 82) and Nerukar (52, 52) in place of Nordhagen and Vermeersch. Game founder Hugo Koblet rounds out the last podium of the season, cracking 900 with all of the above sans Del Toro.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Crevaison	(+10)
2	karaev	(+7)
3	DJW	(+6)
4	Kazistuta	(+5)
4	Samu Cuenca	(+5)

It's hard to move up the standings very much by week 39, but Crevaison manages an end-of-season push that brings their team up double digit places at the end, moving up 10 spots on 817 points from Magnier/Del Toro/Lafay as well as Lenny Martinez (130, 4) closing out the season with a win in Japan. Longtime game player karaev lands in 2nd moving up 7 spots, while DJW has sole possession of 3rd, moving up 6.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Salvarani	420
2	Squire	370.7
3	SafeBet	363
4	Pantani4ever	316
5	Devils_Elbow	242

SafeBet's end-of-season surge (the maximum 90 points in the last 2 weeks for two wins, 110 points in the last 3 weeks) isn't quite enough to move higher than 3rd, as Salvarani ends up winning this ranking by almost 50 points, and Squire holds firm in 2nd by scoring 22 more this week. I believe this is the first year that the 3 teams on the Green Jersey podium are the same as the overall podium, speaking to the value of consistently high-scoring rare picks (eg Del Toro, Almeida) as team engines in this year's game. Speaking of the overall...

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	Salvarani	17113
2	(-)	SafeBet	16860
3	(-)	Squire	16647
4	(-)	Devils_Elbow	15900
5	(+2)	triley36	15790
6	(-1)	EvansIsTheBest	15686
7	(+2)	Earns1985	15379
8	(-)	Berflamand	15338
9	(+1)	18-Valve. (pithy)	15169
10	(-4)	postmanhat	15109

In the end, it was closer than it looked like it would be for the last few months, but Salvarani is officially the winner of the 2025 CQ Game! SafeBet made it tight though, gaining a huge 572 points this week on Salvarani, but it wasn't enough. Salvarani had a big enough buffer to end up holding on by 253 points, but given that their team's lead was over 1300 on SafeBet three weeks ago, it was surprisingly close. Squire finishes yet another solid season in third - as was mentioned on this thread, their team is essentially a pre-2018 Valverde at the Worlds, nailing down every placing position but first in this game. So it's worthwhile remembering that Valverde eventually got his!

Further down, triley36 finishes strong to leap into 5th behind Devil's Elbow, former winner and perennial high-placer EvansIsTheBest lands in 6th, and Earns1985, Berflamand, 18-Valve and postmanhat make up the rest of the top 10. Nobody falls out of the top 10 on the last week, although HoudiniCycling made a mad dash towards the top 10, gaining over 500 on postmanhat but landing a mere 16 points back in the end.

Congratulations to Salvarani, and thanks to all who participated in the game and in discussion here, for making another edition of the CQ Game a fun time! Time to start working on next year's team...

spreadsheet link

 

[skidmark]

I would consider making two options out of the three listed available, anything that goes against making it harder to submit should help with regards to participation levels.

Yeah that's a good idea. Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm talking to Armchair Cyclist about the temporary mod idea, as that's the most like how it's always been. If that doesn't pan out, I'll set up an email address and @Shakes I'll get at you (in this thread I guess if we don't have DM capabilities) to see how we might be able to set something up through the site.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Congrats Salvarani on the dominant win, SafeBet on the late push and squire for the annual podium placement.

Thanks to skidmark for hosting the game.

Hope to see all of you for next season. I'm off to work on my 2026 team.

 

[del1962]

congrats to Salvarani and thanks to Skidmark for running the game

 

[triley36]

Thanks to Skidmark for running the game. Keeps the season interesting.

Congrats to Salvarani on the win and SafeBet and Squire for being on the podium.

Lastly, thanks and congrats to Isaac Del Toro for landing me in the top 5 despite my second and third most expensive picks not breaking even!

See you all in the new year!

 

[Netserk]

Thank you for another well-run season, @skidmark. Thanks to @EvansIsTheBest for pitching in and sharing the load, and to @Shakes for the site.

Congratulations to our winner @Salvarani, this year's ultimate cycling bezzerwizzer.

And a final thanks to all participants, your contributions are what makes this game so good to follow even for a non-participant.

 

[Salvarani]

Yes, thank you to everyone that has congratulated so far.

Im happy that the strategy I opted for, to give me an edge in this game this year, worked over the popular Vinge/Van Aert combo.

Going your own way might not work to win every year over the pack or a team that has just managed to get every single popular pick that becomes important to have, but if one manages to find value where few are looking... it could yield a greater return in a single year. Like this time. That and picking good riders. + a little bit of luck along the way.

Huge thanks to @skidmark for arranging the game + providing the weekly updates that is always a good read and to @EvansIsTheBest for filling in during the year as well. Also thanks to @Shakes for the website. It is good to be able to get a quick scope after races and for the combo search, that is a really nice feature.

Special mention to my fellow podium finishers in @SafeBet and @Squire. Well played.

See you next year again!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I guess once your team has fallen back by enough spots the only way is up.

Congratulations to Salvarani for the deserved win, and a huge thank you to Skidmark(/(EvansIsTheBest) for running the game once again.

I'd also like to give special thanks to Niklas Larsen for helping me break into the top 80 for the first time. We did it, buddy! I would still have been better off picking the whole Astana team, apart from Bettiol, but the difference was less than 140 points in the end.

 

[Shakes]

Yeah that's a good idea. Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm talking to Armchair Cyclist about the temporary mod idea, as that's the most like how it's always been. If that doesn't pan out, I'll set up an email address and @Shakes I'll get at you (in this thread I guess if we don't have DM capabilities) to see how we might be able to set something up through the site.

Website is still terribly slow. On mobile today but tried to clean up a bit (it's a *** on a small screen) but it very well could be the host, rather than the website. Anyway, December hopefully time to fix it!

I made a team selection functionality on the website. It now requires users to login (through Google) but if not desired could also opt for simple CN forum name plus password. As the benefit of a username password, at least temporary, is that users can then also edit their team. Password won't have any restrictions, just to prevent that someone else can see your team.