The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Panda Claws]

I finally sent in my squad too. Put in way more effort than in previous editions so I'm really looking forward to following this team. In the past I always had a lot of random names I didn't care about, could hardly remember and had zero clue about what races they might even attend.
This year I'm definitely more invested in them so hopefully that'll also mean some better results.

Preparing for this game can really be exhausting. There are just so many possible picks and you get the craziest FOMO about ones you might've missed.

Hoping for a lot of participants and may your teams be free of crashes

 

[ingsve]

...so I'm really looking forward to following this team.

This really is the beauty of this game. Hopefully it mainly coincides with a competitive team as well so that the points for various riders actually matter. I remember some of the years where I just phoned in a quickly made team and it quickly fell below in the 50s, 60s or 70s in the rankings then that took away from it a bit but for example in the past couple of years since I've followed the sport much more closely again it has really added something to the year.

I always scour through the start lists for each coming week to get a sense of if I have any riders active and I follow the early reports on PCS to see if I happen to have any riders in the break of the day and then at the end of the day it's looking through the results (other than watching the races) to see where my riders finished, if that was good or bad by them and what it would mean for the rest of the season. It can really get a bit obsessive at times.

 

[del1962]

I have submitted my team, and I think this team's highest priced rider is the lower than any previous highest priced riders in any of my teams before.

There was two over 1000 riders I liked the look of, but I think after I picked the initial riders I wanted didn't have the budget for.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I sent the list of victims of my cogitations a couple of days ago. There was one expensive rider that I had decided early on to put in that will might put me in either the top 20 or the bottom 20. After that, I had plenty of riders that I considered in the 150-250 bracket, but with a few cheap and cheerful picks I was struggling to get anywhere near the 7500 points, so I put in a 700+ guy with no real expectation of great improvement, but because if he matches 2025 he has scored more than any other combination of cheap picks that I was looking at (after accounting for the loss of even cheaper guys' points to maintain the 33 rider rule).


And that is why I will be placed very unimpressively yet again.

 

[Panda Claws]

I

I sent the list of victims of my cogitations a couple of days ago. There was one expensive rider that I had decided early on to put in that will might put me in either the top 20 or the bottom 20.

Have faith. Just look at Steelydan's expensive 2013 picks.

Spoiler: Winners and their 1000+ points picks

Salvarani 2025: none (Almeida at 988 was really close)
shalgo 2024: Ayuso (1023 -> 1276)
Blues in the Bottle 2023: Roglic (1240 -> 2744)
EvansIsTheBest 2022: Evenepoel (1325 -> 3154)
Object 2021: none (but post Covid season with fewer options in that range and Evenepoel at 918 came close)
bminchow 2020: none (but obviously the season didn't play out as usual)
fauniera 2019: Bernal (1130 -> 2214)
Ruvu75 2018: Alaphilippe (1011 -> 2085)
fauniera 2017: none
skidmark 2016: none
Cykeltyven 2015: Rodriguez (1150 -> 1750)
Pentacycle 2014: Contador (1228 -> 2543)
SteelyDan 2013: Sagan (1963 -> 2673), Gilbert (1086 -> 949)
skidmark 2012: none
ingsve 2011: none

8 winners with at least one 1000+ points rider and 7 without. Both pathways seem equally valid historically.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Team submitted. Two riders over 600 points, none above 1000 points.
My team scored a remarkable 19563 points in 2024. Some of the riders will not repeat their 2024 score, but hopefully do a lot better in 2026 than 2025.

 

[search]

I sent in my team as well. Needed some desperate measures to find more joy in watching cycling again.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Team submitted. Two riders over 600 points, none above 1000 points.
My team scored a remarkable 19563 points in 2024. Some of the riders will not repeat their 2024 score, but hopefully do a lot better in 2026 than 2025.

I keep promising myself not to be so directed by point loss compared to the previous year, in my selection, but always default to that. But my total for 2024 was only 18400, so feeling a bit better about it.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Team send in, but I gotta say that I'm not at all confident. I had like 15-20 very certain picks, but from there I honestly don't have much clue. I found it extremely tough this year, because I couldn't find a single rider below 100 points I'm happy with. I definitely don't see anyone having a Brennanesque season from the bunch I ended up with.

Good luck to everyone! I'm very curious to see everyone's teams.

 

[ingsve]

I keep promising myself not to be so directed by point loss compared to the previous year, in my selection, but always default to that. But my total for 2024 was only 18400, so feeling a bit better about it.

Just for fun I put together a quick list to see how high I could get the previous year performance from a legal team.

I ended up with a team that cost 7482 which had a 2024 score of 26228.

And that still excludes riders who won't be competing in 2026 otherwise it could have gotten even higher.

 

[Panda Claws]

Oof I'm at 18999 for 2024. No clue if that's particularly high.

There were definitely some riders on my shortlist that I wonder if people'll have dared picking up.

 

[SafeBet]

I keep promising myself not to be so directed by point loss compared to the previous year, in my selection, but always default to that. But my total for 2024 was only 18400, so feeling a bit better about it.

Lol my total for 2024 is 11777. Guess I won't be in the top5 for popularity this time.

 

[ingsve]

Lol my total for 2024 is 11777. Guess I won't be in the top5 for popularity this time.

Ya, that seems very out of place. No confidence in almost any bounce backs there it seems. Not saying it won't work though.