The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[skidmark]

While I'm putting some stats together, here's my team:

EVENEPOEL Remco
SEIXAS Paul
WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert
NYS Thibau
VAN GILS Maxim
VAN EETVELT Lennert
MOHORIC Matej
LAPORTE Christophe
COSNEFROY Benoit
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
WIDAR Jarno
VERMAERKE Kevin
POOLE Max
PERICAS CAPDEVILA Adria
ZINGLE Axel
DECOMBLE Maxime
HATHERLY Alan
DE KLEIJN Arvid
TORRES ARIAS Pablo
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe
GAFFURI Mattia
HAGENES Per Strand
ROTA Lorenzo
NOVAK Pavel
REMIJN Senna
KRON Andreas Lorentz
DINHAM Matthew
BEHRENS Niklas
JAKOBSEN Fabio
WILLIAMS Stephen
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo
HAYTER Leo
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia

No time to offer written analysis at the moment, but the tl:dr is - after deciding to go the Evenepoel route, basically 14 of the 17 of the <150 riders were 'eat your vegetables' choices, more dart throws than I prefer but that's the price you pay to get a 1900+ rider and what I considered the 'musts' at higher levels. It was maybe the most interesting year I can remember in this game in terms of figuring out a strategy to put together a team.

 

[ingsve]

Here is the write up for my team in 2026.

This was an interesting year because it just had so many picks that might turn out to be good. The quest instead became to find the right mix with the best potential and still make it into a team within the budget.


SEIXAS Paul
WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert
NORDHAGEN Jørgen
WIDAR Jarno
TORRES ARIAS Pablo

These are the big rising riders in my team. Given that these riders will be riding their first full WT season without sprinkling in any U-23 races this year it just felt that they all have a lot more to give in terms of Points. Especially Seixas could easily have perhaps not quiet a Del Toro jump but at least hitting 1500 points in a season. I view Widar and Withen almost the same but with only slightly lower upside than Seixas who feels almost limitless.

As for Nordhagen he was not in my main draft since I feel his upside is perhaps a little lower than Widar and Withen even but he ended up in the team from a late change where I replaced Tarling with Nordhagen to finance Another upgrade.

Torres is there because of his capacity, reputation and his team. He is cheap enough that even moderate improvement will get him into profit but he should have the potential to go big as well.


O'CONNOR Ben I ended up going for O'Connor for a few specific reasons. First of all his potential given 2024 is far above what he did in 2025 so he has the natural upside for a game like this. In interviews he feels very set on improving in his second year at Jayco so that gives me confidence that he will be one who tries hard to get results as opposed to someon resting on their laurels a bit. The final factor that made me go for him is that he is starting the year with doing Aussie Nationals and TDU so that could very quickly mean he starts the year with a solid 100-150 Points or more right off the bat.

MAS NICOLAU Enric With Mas the question is whether he is actually fine again after his injury but given that he is already scheduled for early races it gave me enough hope that he should be fine and him doing double GTs as well should hopefully give him the Points to come good.

TIBERI Antonio I initially had Cian Uijtebroecks in this price range but I ended up replacing him with Tiberi since I got the feeling that Tiberi based on the last few years should be a fundamentally more sound rider. That said, the way Cian rode in the 2nd half of last season makes me thing his troubles are over and he could get back to top-10 in most races he rides so he could easily be a good pick as well.

LANDA MEANA Mikel Being one of the main leaders left at Soudal Quickstep after Evenepoel left and him having a poor season due to his crash makes the old man a good pick in my mind. Hopefully he is not to old and can squeeze another good year out of himself.

BLACKMORE Joseph Blackmore was a late pivot for me. I felt that he struggled with the transition to WT races from 2.1 races the year Before but being one of the few climbers left at NSN he should get all the opportunities in the World and he should have enough talent to show that he can cope with the WT as well.

VAN GILS Maxim Van Gils had a rocky first year with a new team but his level should be way above what he did last year so my hope is that he has settled in better with Red Bull and will be closer to his best again.

LAPORTE Christophe Laporte came back at the end of the season and had some really good results so going by that it seems he is back fit again so hopefully he can get back to closer to 1000 Points again.

COSNEFROY Benoit This is perhaps one of the must not miss picks of the season. My prediction is that Cosnefroy will be leading the race Schedule that Hirshi had 2 years ago and Del Toro had last years. So lots of one day races that UAE dominates so I would not be surprised if Cosnefroy could get Close to 2000 Points. At any rate he should be an almost guaranteed profit. The caveat being his injury troubles but hopefully he will be fit for fight.

RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
VLASOV Aleksandr
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe
Here we have a set of high potential GT and GC riders who scored very low in 2025 for various known or unknown reasons. To me given their inate potential they are simply way too cheap to ignore. Any of them could suddenly had a 1000 Point season so at the very least getting into good profit should not be an issue for these riders under normal circumstances.

PITHIE Laurence Pithie was a late addition to my team. Sort of like Van Gils he was a victim of a lackluster season for the Red Bull team in one day classics. Perhaps the whole Oier deal was looming over them somehow or whatever it was, they should at least be capable of much better.

GLOAG Thomas Gloag is a rider I had last season in his comeback year and he did OK profit but I think moving to the PT and probably racing a slightly easier program will suit him really well.

VERMAERKE Kevin Vermaerke is a pick I made first of all because of him underperforming his previous year but also because of the move to UAE. Just riding for that team means you are part of the action in a lot of races and that brings points with it, especially for someone who has a record of doing well in various races. That makes him a pick with a lot of upsides in my view.

POOLE Max Poole is one of those riders that I'm just waiting for him to burst trough. His overall Points each season has been far below the results level he has shown in individual races. He should be a 1000+ rider given his results but because he has missed so much of each season lately the overall Points have been low. A full year without issues should see him rake in a lot of Points.

KÄMNA Lennard Kämna was a late return from injuries last season but showed in various races that he can still perform at a high level so at his cost he should be a good should to give a good return.

BRENNER Marco Brenner had a good start to last season but crashed out of the Giro and lost most of the season except for a few comeback rides at the end of the year. It looks like he is back from the crash so hopefully he can have a good year ahead of him.

ZINGLE Axel Zingle had an unfortunate season with a lot of crashes that left him far from his previous results. Hopefully his has better luck and will be back to his old self which would mean a massive profit over his cost.

VANSEVENANT Mauri Vansevenant is a rider who sort of snuck into my team at some Point and then sort of just stuck around because there were no compelling reasons to replace him. He had a lackluster year and a cost that should give lots of upside.

HAGENES Per Strand Hagesen struggled with some unknown illness during the year. By the looks of things he seems to be back in Winter training with the team so hopefully everything is all right and he can have a good year again. This is a rider where I'm still waiting for his big break through but the classics team at Visma seems to love what he's doing so it should just be a matter of time.

KAMP Alexander
KRON Andreas Lorentz
Kamp and Kron are two danes for Uno-X who were heavily and decently picked last year without delivering. For Kamp it's a new team and perhaps more prominent roles in many races as well and for Kron it's simply a matter of hopefully being fit again after all the back issues he's had. They both have a busy early season laid out already so it seems they should both be fit for fight from the early season so I take that as a good sign for their prospect, especially at their cheap costs.

JAKOBSEN Fabio Is this finally the year when Jakobsen is quit all his issues. He's had the iliac surgery and he himself seems Confident going into 2026 that he can compete in sprints again. At a cost of 11 he is simply impossible to ignore given that optimism.

WILLIAMS Stephen Stephen Williams is a rider I've been back and forth with. He should be an obvious pick at his cost but then there still seems to be lingering doubts with him just hoping he can race at all. In the end I couldn't leave him out just because of the huge upside and FOMO in came he is a popular pick that suddenly scores like 1000 Points again.

SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo Like Williams, Pelayo Sanchez is just too cheap with too much potential upside to ignore even if there are still doubts about his performance.

HAYTER Leo If possible I wanted someone from the new George Hincapie team. Being new to the ProTeam level they are unlikely to race too many WT races so there should be room for some riders to do well at the *.1 level for example. And what better rider to pick than the former Baby Giro Winner. Leo says he will be back fully focused on the road again in 2026 and basically being a free rider I see nothing but upside to this pick.

BARRY Ashlin
ANDERSEN Noah Lindholm Møller
Finally a couple of 0-pointers. There aren't that many highly hyped riders like Withen or Seixas in this years class but given that WT riders are not longer able to ride U-23 races it should be a decent category for some points for high class riders. Hopefully they can get 100 Points each at worst and who knows what the upside might be.

There were many more riders that I considered. In hindsight the one that I probably should have taken another look at is Van Eetvelt who was in my team for the longest time but with all the options available and with poor information about his recovery I decided not to take the gamble.

 

[skidmark]

I think we are at the appropriate hour.

A couple of mini polls:
Who will be the most popular pick?

How many teams (out of ninety-something) will have Evenepoel?

I can't definitively answer these yet, but:

1) it's close but one of the top 3 at this point (and presumably when they're all compiled) is some team's most expensive pick, and

2) fewer than I thought (so that's not who I'm referring to in #1)

 

[ingsve]

I'm a bit surprised that people are going the Evenepoel route. During the season I thought that he was going to be an obvious pick but the more he kept scoring he just ended up being too expensive for me to think he would be a good pick in the end. I suppose if he reaches 3000 points like his best seasons then he will be an OK pick or even decent pick. Just a bit too rich for my blood. My ceiling for him was around 1500 points.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

My calendar based approach turned out to not suck as much as my Basque Street Boys, but I have nevertheless still decided to try something different once again. When looking through my team you will most likely notice one major thing, and yes it's true: I have finally given up on Sergio Higuita after three seasons. He will probably return to scoring over 1000 points now.


VAN EETVELT Lennert
LAPORTE Christophe
COSNEFROY Benoit
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
BISIAUX Léo
PITHIE Laurence
DE KLEIJN Arvid
HAGENES Per Strand
HOBBS Noah
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro
GLIVAR Gal
TRATNIK Jan
HUBER Jan
VAN GESTEL Dries
BATTISTELLA Samuele
HERREGODTS Rune
DINHAM Matthew
CARSTENSEN Lucas
EYOB Metkel
JAKOBSEN Fabio
WILLIAMS Stephen
ARNDT Nikias
REX Tim
RÄIM Mihkel
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo
GREENWOOD Matthew
MENDEZ NOREÑA Daniel Alejandro
DE VYLDER Lindsay
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia
BALLERSTEDT Maurice
FONTAINE Titouan
POGACAR Tadej

 

[skidmark]

My calendar based approach turned out to not suck as much as my Basque Street Boys, but I have nevertheless still decided to try something different once again. When looking through my team you will most likely notice one major thing, and yes it's true: I have finally given up on Sergio Higuita after three seasons. He will probably return to scoring over 1000 points now.



POGACAR Tadej

Not a unique pick fyi

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

My calendar based approach turned out to not suck as much as my Basque Street Boys, but I have nevertheless still decided to try something different once again. When looking through my team you will most likely notice one major thing, and yes it's true: I have finally given up on Sergio Higuita after three seasons. He will probably return to scoring over 1000 points now.


VAN EETVELT Lennert
LAPORTE Christophe
COSNEFROY Benoit
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
BISIAUX Léo
PITHIE Laurence
DE KLEIJN Arvid
HAGENES Per Strand
HOBBS Noah
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro
GLIVAR Gal
TRATNIK Jan
HUBER Jan
VAN GESTEL Dries
BATTISTELLA Samuele
HERREGODTS Rune
DINHAM Matthew
CARSTENSEN Lucas
EYOB Metkel
JAKOBSEN Fabio
WILLIAMS Stephen
ARNDT Nikias
REX Tim
RÄIM Mihkel
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo
GREENWOOD Matthew
MENDEZ NOREÑA Daniel Alejandro
DE VYLDER Lindsay
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia
BALLERSTEDT Maurice
FONTAINE Titouan
POGACAR Tadej

There goes another of the three I thought might be unique... (No, not him)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Not a unique pick fyi

I could see other people picking him. I mean if you look at the CQ ranking from the top he's the first rider on there who lost points between 2024 and '25.

 

[skidmark]

I'm a bit surprised that people are going the Evenepoel route. During the season I thought that he was going to be an obvious pick but the more he kept scoring he just ended up being too expensive for me to think he would be a good pick in the end. I suppose if he reaches 3000 points like his best seasons then he will be an OK pick or even decent pick. Just a bit too rich for my blood. My ceiling for him was around 1500 points.

To spoil AC's question, only 12 teams have actually chosen to go the Evenepoel route:

18-Valve.(pithy)

Armchair Cyclist

Berflamand

EvansIsTheBest

jon_ezeitza

JumboVismaFan

kingcycling

Leadbelly

lil_michy

Pantani4ever

skidmark

Wvv

They've just been over-indexed on shared teams so far, I think.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

While I'm putting some stats together, here's my team:

EVENEPOEL Remco
SEIXAS Paul
WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert
NYS Thibau
VAN GILS Maxim
VAN EETVELT Lennert
MOHORIC Matej
LAPORTE Christophe
COSNEFROY Benoit
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos
WIDAR Jarno
VERMAERKE Kevin
POOLE Max
PERICAS CAPDEVILA Adria
ZINGLE Axel
DECOMBLE Maxime
HATHERLY Alan
DE KLEIJN Arvid
TORRES ARIAS Pablo
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe
GAFFURI Mattia
HAGENES Per Strand
ROTA Lorenzo
NOVAK Pavel
REMIJN Senna
KRON Andreas Lorentz
DINHAM Matthew
BEHRENS Niklas
JAKOBSEN Fabio
WILLIAMS Stephen
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo
HAYTER Leo
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia

No time to offer written analysis at the moment, but the tl:dr is - after deciding to go the Evenepoel route, basically 14 of the 17 of the <150 riders were 'eat your vegetables' choices, more dart throws than I prefer but that's the price you pay to get a 1900+ rider and what I considered the 'musts' at higher levels. It was maybe the most interesting year I can remember in this game in terms of figuring out a strategy to put together a team.

Wild how similar our teams are (21 picks and over 6k of budget in common), especially at the top. Essentially Tarling + Nordhagen + Finn vs Mohoric + Vermaerke + Pericas.

 

[Panda Claws]

Ultimately teams aren't that different so I'm just going to go on about differences.

I did really want Evenepoel at first – I think he can score somewhere between 3500 and 4000 points with an uninterrupted preparation and season, which is normally worth it at his price – but after seeing who I would have to leave out to take him, I became certain that there were going to be teams who were going to manage more than a 100% profit on the three to six mid-range riders you can spend almost 2000 points on instead. In other words, I think that while you can do very well with a team containing Evenepoel, it’s going to be really hard to win with him. And so, I settled on going for a more egalitarian approach for the first time since 2022 – and even then, the choices were still really painful.

I'm not sure I agree with this take. Evenepoel was high on my list because he's bound to be an optimal pick if he scores ~3500 points or more. It's already part of the equation that a higher cost pick doesn't need to multiply their score by as much because picking a team is always a negotiation between 'higher scoring potential' and 'space'. Else the optimal tactic would be to pick all 200-300 cost riders, but there simply aren't enough good ones out there.
Ultimately though I didn't pick him because I feel he won't race as full of a season and will spare his strength more often.

Ben O’Connor (563)

You convinced me I should have picked him.

Albert Withen Philipsen (459)

I didn't pick him because I already had Seixas and either of them would mark the 1st time that a cyclist so young yet so costly would end up being a must-have. We did have Ayuso, Bernal and Brennan recently but all of them were below 200 points. Banking on one record-breaker was enough for me.

Max Poole (215) –

Fair. I just didn't dare pick him because of the Epstein-Barr virus.

Gerben Thijssen (192)

Read the same interview! I fear to get duped by Dutch hype men though. I recall seeing an image somewhere where they asked people in various countries how good their French was and they ranked high there too.

Nils Politt (137)

Mikkel Bjerg (137)

Considered them, but I don't like their odds if Pogacar wants to be the leader in spring. That being said I may have underestimated their scoring potential in the smaller cobbled classics.

Tom Crabbe (79) –

One of the ones I hadn't even considered. Looking at Top Sport Vlaanderen I feel their riders just tend to not score so high.

Fabio Jakobsen (11)

I did pick him, but am not too hopeful.



Here my team is not as similar.

UIJTDEBROEKS Cian 614

He'll probably be decent, but I don't ever see him scoring well-enough to truly be a game-winner. Perhaps I seriously undervalued safer bets like this one though.

LANDA MEANA Mikel 433

Really wanted to pick Landa but ultimately didn't trust him enough. He should be a lot of fun to follow and root for at least.

BLACKMORE Joseph 277

Part of my 1st draft. Ultimately felt like too much of a jack-of-all-trades to me.

COSNEFROY Benoit 268

Only ended picking him up because of his recent interview stressing that he'll be the leader in smaller/French races.

BEHRENS Niklas 16

I liked how he went kind of viral by training in the snow (showed motivation?) but even without Kooij I though there might be too many cooks in the kitchen still.

EVENEPOEL Remco

Risky pick, but I see the vision.

NORDHAGEN Jørgen

Have this one too. Hopefully S. Yates retiring will be an added boon here.

SPARFEL Aubin

137 points and going to the Development Team made me wonder about the upside so I didn't look into him much. Any info on the schedule?

AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia

Didn't pick him but should be a fun one to follow.

 

[skidmark]

Wild how similar our teams are (21 picks and over 6k of budget in common), especially at the top. Essentially Tarling + Nordhagen + Finn vs Mohoric + Vermaerke + Pericas.

Yeah my feeling was, once committing to Evenepoel, I had to look really carefully at the 200+ pointers to pick the ones I was most confident in... seems like we had similar analyses on that. Mohoric was indeed the rider in that range I was most willing to swap out/unsure of, but other than that I couldn't imagine passing up the others down to Widar, and I assume your experience of refining the team may have been the same.

 

[skidmark]

Okay everyone, here's the most popular kids in class:

SEIXAS Paul	73​
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos	71​
WIDAR Jarno	69​
VAN EETVELT Lennert	68​
ZINGLE Axel	65​
COSNEFROY Benoit	64​
POOLE Max	60​
LAPORTE Christophe	59​
VAN GILS Maxim	58​
WILLIAMS Stephen	51​
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo	46​
PITHIE Laurence	46​
NYS Thibau	46​
JAKOBSEN Fabio	44​
WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert	44​
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe	40​
KRON Andreas Lorentz	38​
GAUDU David	37​
TARLING Joshua	36​
HAGENES Per Strand	36​
REMIJN Senna	36​
DECOMBLE Maxime	35​
TORRES ARIAS Pablo	34​
HOBBS Noah	34​
BEHRENS Niklas	33​
DINHAM Matthew	33​
BLACKMORE Joseph	31​
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia	29​
VLASOV Aleksandr	28​
O'CONNOR Ben	28​
MOHORIC Matej	28​
MAS NICOLAU Enric	27​
THIJSSEN Gerben	26​
LAMPERTI Luke	25​
PERICAS CAPDEVILA Adria	25​
VALTER Attila	23​
VANSEVENANT Mauri	22​
DE KLEIJN Arvid	22​
NORDHAGEN Jørgen	22​
BISIAUX Léo	21​
FINN Lorenzo	20​
KRIJNSEN Jelte	19​
OMRZEL Jakob	19​
VERMAERKE Kevin	18​
SÖDERQVIST Jakob	17​
TUCKWELL Luke	17​
TIBERI Antonio	16​
DEL GROSSO Tibor	15​
NOVAK Pavel	15​
LANDA MEANA Mikel	15​
CARR Simon	14​
TRATNIK Jan	14​
DUNBAR Edward	14​
STEINHAUSER Georg	13​
ZANA Filippo	13​
EVENEPOEL Remco	12​
PICKERING Finlay	12​
KOCKELMANN Mathieu	12​
HAYTER Leo	11​
AUGUST Andrew	11​
SENTJENS Sente	11​
BRENNAN Matthew	11​
POLITT Nils	11​
ANDERSEN Noah Lindholm Møller	11​
BELOKI FERNANDEZ Markel	11​
PELLIZZARI Giulio	10​
L'HOTE Antoine	9​
EULALIO Afonso	9​
RYAN Archie	9​
BALLERSTEDT Maurice	9​
GAUTHERAT Pierre	9​
BRENNER Marco	9​
THORNLEY Callum	9​
HIRT Jan	9​
GLOAG Thomas	9​
ISIDORE Noa	9​
TAMINIAUX Lionel	9​
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando	8​
SCHWARZBACHER Matthias	8​
ROTA Lorenzo	8​
GUALDI Simone	8​
VAN BAARLE Dylan	8​
ACKERMANN Pascal	8​
KÜNG Stefan	8​
MCKENZIE Hamish	8​
VAN UDEN Casper	7​
ALVAREZ MARTINEZ Hector	7​
VACEK Mathias	7​
Barry Ashlin	7​
HERREGODTS Rune	7​
FAURE PROST Alexy	7​
UIJTDEBROEKS Cian	7​
PESCADOR CASTRO Diego	7​
GAROFOLI Gianmarco	7​
PHILIPSEN Jasper	7​
SPARFEL Aubin	7​
HOUCOU Emmanuel	7​
TEUTENBERG Tim Torn	7​
RAFFERTY Darren	7​
REX Tim	7​
RODRIGUEZ GARAICOECHEA Oscar	7​
LAFAY Victor	6​
BERCKMOES Jenno	6​
VAN GESTEL Dries	6​
BENNETT Sam	6​
RICCITELLO Matthew	6​
HUDSON Harry	6​
ØRN-KRISTOFF Felix	6​
STORM Theodor	6​
VAN WILDER Ilan	6​
GLIVAR Gal	6​
HIRSCHI Marc	6​
BOUWMAN Koen	6​
VERSTRYNGE Emiel	6​
MOZZATO Luca	6​
GRISEL Matys	5​
PARET PEINTRE Valentin	5​
GIRMAY HAILU Biniam	5​
LABROSSE Jordan	5​
BURGAUDEAU Mathieu	5​
RAMIREZ TORRES Mateo Pablo	5​
MORGADO Antonio Tomas	5​
LEONARD Michael	5​
SVRCEK Martin	5​
ROGLIC Primoz	5​
VALJAVEC Erazem	5​
MADOUAS Valentin	5​
BATTISTELLA Samuele	5​
FOLDAGER Anders	5​
WELSFORD Sam	5​
SEGAERT Alec	5​
AFFINI Edoardo	4​
PAGE Hugo	4​
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan	4​
CHAMBERLAIN Oscar	4​
MACIAS ESTRADA Cesar	4​
PICKRELL Riley	4​
PENHOËT Paul	4​
ADRIA OLIVERAS Roger	4​
ØXENBERG HANSEN Peter	4​
GEE-WEST Derek	4​
BIESTERBOS Frits	4​
VERVENNE Jonathan	4​
PEDERSEN Henrik Breiner	4​
BAUDIN Alex	4​
ROLLAND Brieuc	4​
HERZOG Emil	4​
QUINN Sean	4​
DAINESE Alberto	4​
CRABBE Tom	4​
INGEBRIGTSEN Storm	4​
NERURKAR Lukas	4​
BOICHIS Adrien	4​
AGOSTINACCHIO Filippo	3​
SCHOONVELDE Gijs	3​
ROMELE Alessandro	3​
GAFFURI Mattia	3​
CONSONNI Simone	3​
MOURIS Michiel	3​
BJERG Mikkel Norsgaard	3​
NORSGAARD Mathias	3​
KÄMNA Lennard	3​
GELDERS Gil	3​
SENECHAL Florian	3​
ORINS Robin	3​
FISHER-BLACK Finn	3​
GIDDINGS Joshua	3​
LIPOWITZ Florian	3​
DE LA CALLE ARANGO Hugo	3​
VANGHELUWE Warre	3​
PEACE Oliver	3​
RONDEL Mathys	3​
DE VYLDER Lindsay	3​
MASNADA Fausto	3​
GROVES Kaden	3​
KAMP Alexander	3​
HAIG Jack	3​
SIMMONS Quinn	3​
PIGANZOLI Davide	3​
SYRITSA Gleb	3​
RACCAGNI NOVIERO Andrea	3​
ASGREEN Kasper	3​
RAFFERTY Adam	3​
URIANSTAD BUGGE Martin	3​
DOUBLE Paul	3​
VAN DER TUUK Axel	3​
ERZEN Zak	3​
VAN TRICHT Floris	3​
CHARRET Camille	3​
MARTI SORIANO Pau	3​
JACKOWIAK Jan	3​
SCHIFFER Anton	3​

 

[skidmark]

and the lone wolves:

BLAISE Arthur	2​
PLAPP Lucas	2​
LAPEIRA Paul	2​
REINDERINK Pepijn	2​
DONNENWIRTH Tom	2​
BURATTI Nicolo	2​
FLOREZ GARCES Samuel Alejandro	2​
REX Laurenz	2​
TRONCHON Bastien	2​
HUBER Jan	2​
FOSS Tobias Svendsen	2​
MCGILL Scott	2​
VAN TRICHT Stan	2​
CHARMIG Anthon	2​
WANDAHL Frederik	2​
CASTRILLO ZAPATER Pablo	2​
OLDANI Stefano	2​
GIULIANO Dario	2​
BEVORT Carl-Frederik	2​
DARDER GARI Sergi	2​
TURNER Ben	2​
CAVAGNA Rémi	2​
VADER Milan	2​
KAJAMINI Florian Samuel	2​
POGACAR Tadej	2​
ROULAND Louis	2​
VAN MECHELEN Vlad	2​
PEDERSEN Rasmus Søjberg	2​
MAGAGNOTTI Alessio	2​
DEGENKOLB John	2​
GEOGHEGAN HART Tao	2​
ALEOTTI Giovanni	2​
DOCKX Aaron	2​
PEREZ LOPEZ Cesar	2​
TESSON Jason	2​
KELDERMAN Wilco	2​
BERHE Welay	2​
KIRSCH Alex	2​
BETTIOL Alberto	2​
MATTIO Pietro	2​
DONATI Davide	2​
CHRISTEN Jan	2​
TURCONI Filippo	2​
SHMIDT Artem	2​
LECERF William Junior	2​
SIMMONS Colby	2​
FONTAINE Titouan	2​
DEWULF Stan	2​
VALGREN HUNDAHL Michael	2​
SKERL Daniel	2​
VAN AERT Wout	2​
KOOIJ Olav	2​
HINDLEY Jai	2​
SOSA CUERVO Ivan Ramiro	2​
FREDHEIm Stian	2​
KRAL Krystof	2​
GARCIA PIERNA Raul	2​
BENOOT Tiesj	2​
FRIEDL Anatol	2​
ARNDT Nikias	2​
CARSTENSEN Lucas	2​
SVESTAD-BAARDSENG Embret	2​
BLANC Johan	2​
BARRE Louis	2​
FRYDKJAER Patrick Boje	2​
DIJKMAN Daan	2​
ARMIRAIL Bruno	2​
TAILLIEU Aldo	2​
MILAN Jonathan	2​
MARTINEZ Lenny	2​
SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias	1​
AERTS Toon	1​
KULSET Magnus	1​
MAIRE Adrien	1​
WRIGHT Paul	1​
MAISONOBE Sam	1​
KNOX James	1​
MALECKI Kamil	1​
VALENTI Luke	1​
MARECZKO Jakub	1​
VILLAR GALDEANO Iker	1​
MARIVOET SCHOLIERS Duarte	1​
SHEFFIELD Magnus	1​
MARRIAGE Zachary	1​
STANNARD Robert	1​
DE JONG Timo	1​
FIORELLI Filippo	1​
MARTINEZ HUERTAS Juan Guillermo	1​
CUYLITS Mauro	1​
BORREMANS Kasper	1​
VAN BYLEN Liam	1​
GAJDULEWICZ Mateusz	1​
CASTELLON RIBALTA Jan	1​
BABOR Daniel	1​
WANG Gustav	1​
BRAVO Henrique Ribeiro	1​
CORT NIELSEN Magnus	1​
CAUDELL Ezra	1​
JUNGELS Bob	1​
MAUSS Moritz	1​
SOENENS Viktor	1​
ANTONENKO Heorhii	1​
STITES Tyler	1​
DE PRETTO Davide	1​
FERNANDEZ GARCIA Samuel	1​
MEEHAN Jamie	1​
KRUIJSWIJK Steven	1​
MELLANO Ludovico	1​
AEBERSOLD Nils	1​
MENDEZ NOREÑA Daniel Alejandro	1​
LANGELLOTTI Victor	1​
MICHIELSEN Thor	1​
ZAMPERINI Edoardo	1​
DE SCHUYTENEER Steffen	1​
AULAR SANABRIA Orluis Alberto	1​
MILAN Matteo	1​
LEVEQUE Théo	1​
MILESI Lorenzo	1​
VERSCHUREN Killian	1​
MINTEGI CLAVER Iker	1​
VOLTR Martin	1​
BALLERINI Davide	1​
BOARDMAN Samuel	1​
MOLENAAR Alex	1​
GACHIGNARD Thomas	1​
GEERAERTS Ferre	1​
ARMITT Hamish	1​
BUSATTO Francesco	1​
SILVA COUSSAN Guillermo Thomas	1​
DEBRUYNE Ramses	1​
SIVOK Tomas	1​
MULLEN Ryan	1​
SMØRAAS Filip-André Glesnes	1​
AGOSTINACHHIO Mattia	1​
COTE Pier-André	1​
GHYS Robbe	1​
STENICO Mattia	1​
CADENA MARTINEZ Edgar David	1​
STUYVEN Jasper	1​
NOVAK Domen	1​
KOERDT Bjoern	1​
BARBIER Pierre	1​
KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren	1​
BARONCINI Filippo	1​
ARTZ Huub	1​
OBHOLZER Theodor	1​
TJØTTA Martin	1​
O'BRIEN Kelland	1​
CRESCIOLI Ludovico	1​
GILLET Baptiste	1​
TUREK Daniel	1​
DEHAIRS Simon	1​
ASKEY Lewis	1​
CHAMPION Thomas	1​
CARTHY Hugh	1​
CHARLTON Josh	1​
LARRONDE Ellande	1​
DHONDT Robbe	1​
VAN BEKKUM Darren	1​
GONZALEZ RIVERA Abner	1​
VAN DER MEULEN Max	1​
GOVEKAR Matevz	1​
ABRAHAMSEN Jonas	1​
GREENWOOD Matthew	1​
VAN SINTMAARTENSDIJK Roel	1​
GREGOIRE Romain	1​
LI Zhen	1​
PEDERSEN Carl Emil Just	1​
LOULERGUE Victor	1​
PEDERSEN Casper	1​
LUND ANDRESEN Tobias	1​
CAPELLO Roberto	1​
VINOKUROV Nicolya	1​
PEDERSEN Mads	1​
WALTON Jonas	1​
PEDERSEN Martin	1​
MACIEJUK Kacper	1​
GROENEWEGEN Dylan	1​
DATI Tommaso	1​
ALIZADEH Hossein	1​
YEMANE Even	1​
GRUSZCZYNSKI Filip	1​
ERMAKOV Roman	1​
CAPRA Thomas	1​
JACKOWIAK Jan Michal	1​
GUARDEÑO ROMA Jaume	1​
JEAN Victor	1​
GUATIBONZA BECERRA Jonathan Alexander	1​
JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland	1​
PETER Jannis	1​
JOHANSEN Julius	1​
PETIT Clément	1​
SIMON Semen	1​
GUERNALEC Thibault	1​
ETXEBERRIA ANSALAS Haimar	1​
GUERNALEC Victor	1​
SMITHSON Jed	1​
GUILLEMETTE Mathias	1​
BUITRAGO SANCHEZ Santiago	1​
PIDCOCK Joseph	1​
SOMMER Jan	1​
ARAYA Nahom Zeray	1​
KASPAR Jan	1​
PINARELLO Alessandro	1​
EYOB Metkel	1​
DOLVEN Halvor	1​
STEWART Mark	1​
HAJEK Alexander	1​
BOULAHOITE Rayan	1​
HAMILTON Christopher	1​
SVARRE Tobias	1​
HANSEN Alexander Arnt	1​
FAYOLLE Jean-Loup	1​
PONOMAR Andriy	1​
KOLZE CHANGIZI Sebastian	1​
BAX Sjoerd	1​
TARAKCI Mustafa	1​
PORTER Rudy	1​
CRAPS Lars	1​
PRICE-PEJTERSEN Johan	1​
THIERRY Pierre	1​
PRIDAL Tomas	1​
THOMPSON Reuben	1​
PRINGLE Nate	1​
KUDUS Merhawi Gebremedhin	1​
HATHERLY Alan	1​
TONEATTI Davide	1​
QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander	1​
CRAS Steff	1​
RACCAGNI Gabriele	1​
TSVETKOV Nikita	1​
CHESINI Cesare	1​
CUBILLAS Javier	1​
HELLEMOSE Asbjørn	1​
TURGIS Anthony	1​
HEMING Mika	1​
TZORTZAKIS Polychronis	1​
RÄIM Mihkel	1​
UMBA LOPEZ Abner Santiago	1​
DONIE Milan	1​
LANHOVE Milan	1​
RAMOS MURILLO Unai	1​
VADIC Baptiste	1​
RAMSAY Noah	1​
FOUGNER Eivind Broholt	1​
HERREÑO POLANIA Martin Santiago	1​
BISSEGGER Stefan	1​
CAPRON Rémi	1​
ZIJLAARD Maikel	1​
REMINJ Senna	1​
VAN BELLE Loe	1​
HIGUITA GARCIA Sergio Andres	1​
VAN DER HOORN Taco	1​
CONCA Filippo	1​
VAN DER SANDE Tosh	1​
DRIZNERS Jarrad	1​
VAN DYCK Wesley	1​
BELLETTA Dario Igor	1​
FOX Matthew	1​
RODRIGUEZ CONTRERAS Juan Felipe	1​
LEKNESSUND Andreas	1​
DUARTE Filipe	1​
DALBY Simon	1​
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio	1​
FRETIN Milan	1​
HOLMES Williams	1​
VANDEN HEEDE Lars	1​
HONORE Mikkel Frølich	1​
LOPEZ GRANIZO Harold Martin	1​
ROMEO ABAD Ivan	1​
VERMEERSCH Gianni	1​
DUNWOODY Seth	1​
LOUVEL Matîs	1​
HOVORUN Mykola	1​
VIDAL Victor	1​
ROTA RUS Raul	1​
VINE Jay	1​
DVERSNES Fredrik	1​
BLUME LEVY William	1​
ROWE Elliot	1​
WALSCHEID Maximilian	1​
EFRIEM Nahom	1​
FRIGO Marco	1​
SALBY Alexander	1​
WEIS NIELSEN Daniel	1​
SALVADORI Axel	1​
WELTEN Bram	1​
BELMANS Lennert	1​
BOCHAROV Dmitriy	1​
SBARAGLI Kristian	1​
WOODS Michael	1​
HUISING Menno	1​
YATES Adam	1​
EPIS Giosué	1​
ZAMBANINI Edoardo	1​
SCHRETTL Marco	1​
SCHULTZ Nicholas	1​
LARSEN Niklas	1​
ZIMMERMANN Georg	1​
LASINIS Venantas	1​
LAURANCE Axel	1​

I already see a zero point typo but I'm too spreadsheet-weary to fix today; if you see any other than AGOSTINACHHIO let me know by PM

 

[skidmark]

And here are the team rankings from most popular picks to least:

Rank	Team	Pop Score
1	MADRAZO	1339
2	Total Package	1286
3	skidmark	1275
4	Hugo Koblet	1269
5	triley36	1268
6	Earns1985	1267
7	shalgo	1264
8	Nyssinator	1248
9	PandaClaws	1238
10	Senderos	1237
11	Popchu	1228
12	Nakazar	1225
13	jsem94	1207
14	Crevaison	1205
15	trackstand	1200
16	bminchow	1194
17	Devils_Elbow	1187
18	adamski101	1177
19	EvansIsTheBest	1176
20	Kazistuta	1161
21	ingsve	1158
22	Lortnoc	1157
23	HoudiniCycling	1138
24	del1962	1125
25	postmanhat	1123
26	Object	1109
27	repre	1096
28	Amethyst	1092
29	Rufs	1083
30	karaev	1082
31	tobydawq	1081
32	SafeBet	1075
33	Squire	1059
33	the asian	1059
35	manafana	1056
36	Pantani4ever	1055
37	Salvarani	1052
38	vansteenbergen	1051
39	Shakes	1046
40	slow_climber	1041
41	Qazaqstan	1037
42	will10	1034
43	Rakim	1028
43	Sneekes	1028
45	Googolplex	1015
46	vladimir	1012
47	Riverside	1006
48	escartin	993
49	Armchair cyclist	985
50	Wvv	982
51	Eyeballs Out	971
52	Hakkie2	970
53	DJ Sprtsch	946
54	laarsland	933
55	LosBrolin	911
56	peixotini	895
57	Yellow Knight	894
58	Laurens147	892
59	Jon_Ezeitza	885
60	Berflamand	863
61	armchairclimber	859
62	vickyriso	858
63	yoyokt	834
64	R_O_Shipman	815
65	DJW	773
66	hayneplane	751
67	NorthAmericanScum	749
67	zigzag_wanderer	749
69	JumboVismaFan	746
70	search	707
71	Basque Street Boys	705
72	RestInPunk	696
73	Amis_Velo	692
74	Avoriaz	677
75	lil_michy	666
76	Nevs	648
77	YellowSocks	629
78	18-Valve. (pithy)	598
79	skankingcyclist	583
80	Mason07	567
81	pman	557
82	Bicycle_Boy	519
83	Josedin	482
84	Onizuka999	458
85	latinos	440
86	Ilmaestro99	411
87	Leadbelly	350
88	kingcycling	330
89	Andrew the best	263
90	AlTarf_ua	223
91	RedheadDane	150

 

[skidmark]

And finally, here is the link if you want to peruse all the teams. Note that this is my master template with tabs for every team who's played in the last ten years (to save me from extra work if/when teams return after an absence) which I haven't had time to delete/hide yet. So just click the link from the Rankings tab, that will get you to all the active teams.

Sad to see some long time participants not returning this year, such as Jakob747, JPettersen and Blues in the bottle, among others. Hope you're all enjoying cycling wherever you are!

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

137 points and going to the Development Team made me wonder about the upside so I didn't look into him much. Any info on the schedule?

Main goal are the U23 world championships (cyclocross and road). Probably a year early but I think he's class and I'd rather be a year early than late.

 

[ingsve]

@skidmark Someone misspelled AGOSTINACHHIO Mattia so he ended up in the 1s as well.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

And here are the team rankings from most popular picks to least:

Rank	Team	Pop Score
1	MADRAZO	1339

What did I tell you?

I'm surprised that, of all people, the perennial master of creating the highest popularity score ranking teams is distracted by such an issue.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I hope Mareczko, Woods, Sbaragli, Van der Sande and other retired guys are all in the same team cause that should keep me from finishing last.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Okay everyone, here's the most popular kids in class:

SEIXAS Paul	73​
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos	71​
WIDAR Jarno	69​
VAN EETVELT Lennert	68​
ZINGLE Axel	65​
COSNEFROY Benoit	64​
POOLE Max	60​
LAPORTE Christophe	59​
VAN GILS Maxim	58​
WILLIAMS Stephen	51​
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo	46​
PITHIE Laurence	46​
NYS Thibau	46​
JAKOBSEN Fabio	44​
WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert	44​
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe	40​
KRON Andreas Lorentz	38​
GAUDU David	37​
TARLING Joshua	36​
HAGENES Per Strand	36​
REMIJN Senna	36​
DECOMBLE Maxime	35​
TORRES ARIAS Pablo	34​
HOBBS Noah	34​
BEHRENS Niklas	33​
DINHAM Matthew	33​
BLACKMORE Joseph	31​
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia	29​
VLASOV Aleksandr	28​
O'CONNOR Ben	28​
MOHORIC Matej	28​
MAS NICOLAU Enric	27​
THIJSSEN Gerben	26​

The top 33 riders here have a total cost of 7355, and the 34th guy in the list is not tied with the 33rd, so there's your Collective Wisdom team very easily compiled.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I hope Mareczko, Woods, Sbaragli, Van der Sande and other retired guys are all in the same team cause that should keep me from finishing last.

And the unique pick of Oier Lazkano.

 

[Panda Claws]

I always think I'm Jonah Hill in Moneyball when drafting these. Hopeful days still.
Reasoning for this mostly comes from looking at numbers and then looking up interviews and some schedules when available. I don't follow races closely enough most of the time.

2026 Team
ROGLIC Primoz (956) - Yes, he's old, but if anyone can still score big at that age it's going to be him and he's got a schedule for it too with three one-week races (in which he's still kind of the man to beat) and the Vuelta. If he stays upright I can foresee 1500-2000 still. While he'll probably need to be on the higher end of that range to be great, I've faith he'll at least be good.
SEIXAS Paul (661) - My reasoning doesn't differ from yours.
SIMMONS Quinn (568) - I 100% may be a victim of hype here, but the man seems incredibly motivated and I'd be very surprised if last year turned out to be his peak. A similar gamble to my HEALY one last year which turned out pretty well.
NYS Thibau (423) - Not much to add to what has already been said.
VAN GILS Maxim (362) - //
GAUDU David (315) - No indication that legs are gone so should still be good enough.
VAN EETVELT Lennert (302) - Obvious underperformance.
TEUTENBERG Tim Torn (298) - This one I'm not sold on. I basically ended up picking him because I don't buy the ALBERT WITHEN Philipsen hype for this year (I did have him last year) but still wanted more young talent. Then I read that the team was looking to use him in more 2nd tier races and that he'd been ill for some important ones last year. We'll have to see.
NORDHAGEN Jørgen (293) - Impressive Romandie and Guangxi (for what that's worth) + seems like the most obvious young talent for Jumbo to put their resources in because Jorgenson just isn't it.
MOHORIC Matej (290) - If the legs are still there then this is one of the most glaring underperformances of all possible picks.
LAPORTE Christophe (273) - Decent end-of-the-year + seemed very motivated in interviews.
COSNEFROY Benoit (268) - The knee had me very worried until he had that interview about remaining a leader and targeting smaller races instead.
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos (262) - Didn't want to miss out.
WIDAR Jarno (245) - Not much to add to what has already been said.
PITHIE Laurence (228) - Part of the reason I focused on him was because I wanted some representation in Oceania. You need to start the season decently or your mental suffers.
VLASOV Aleksandr (209) - Needs to prove something.
THIJSSEN Gerben (192) - Not much to add to what has already been said.
VAN UDEN Casper (187) - As inconsistent as he's been, he'll still potentially be the 1st sprinter of his team and you don't win a Giro stage out of nothing.
ZINGLE Axel (155) - Not much to add to what has already been said.
DECOMBLE Maxime (152) - You have to bet on some talents even if you can't pick all of them.
VALTER Attila (137) - I didn't originally have him but he should be hungry to prove something and talked about the Flemish classics. Considering that he mentioned appreciating how he felt that the new team believed in him more, I'd think he'll get more chances to score.
DE KLEIJN Arvid (134) - Year too many? Langkawi was still good. We'll see.
TORRES ARIAS Pablo (130) - Google said he'll get to ride small Spanish races instead of playing 2nd-3rd string.
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe (121) - I wasn't going to pick him either, but the upside just seemed too tempting. Unless he really resigns himself to domestique work there's hope for the 400-500 points he needs to be great.
HOBBS Noah (90) - Talented sprinter on a team lacking an obvious better one.
KRON ANDREAS Lorentz (58) - Not much to add to what has already been said.
REMIJN Senna (52) - Alpecin seemed intent on investing in him, and I enjoyed his performance in Tour de Luxembourg.
KRIJNSEN Jelte (45) - We'll have to see. I'm not necessarily convinced, but also didn't find that many great picks below 100 points.
FOX Matthew (36) - My wildcard pick + added representation in Oceania. He should be incredibly hungry and I believe he'll get chances to prove himself too.
DINHAM Matthew (25) - Seemed ready to get back into it on Social Media. Didn't get the sense that he felt defeated or anything at all. I know, I know Froome also looks ready on there.
JAKOBSEN Fabio (11) - Doubt the legs are that gone.
WILLIAMS Stephen (10) - Now, he did seem defeated in my opinion. Yet, for the cost and the potential upside I still picked him. As I stated above there just weren't that many cheap picks I found interesting.
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo (5) - Nothing to add. I doubt he'll be great but I also suffer from FOMO.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Spoiler: Number of selections for each 1000+ riders

POGACAR Tadej 2
DEL TORO ROMERO Isaac 0
VINGEGAARD HANSEN Jonas 0
ALMEIDA Joao Pedro Gonçalves 0
PEDERSEN Mads 1
EVENEPOEL Remco 12
PIDCOCK Thomas 0
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 0
DE LIE Arnaud 0
MAGNIER Paul 0
ONLEY Oscar 0
AYUSO PESQUERA Juan 4
SCARONI Christian 0
VAUQUELIN Kévin 0
MCNULTY Brandon 0
PHILIPSEN Jasper 7
MERLIER Tim 0
CICCONE Giulio 0
GREGOIRE Romain 1
VINE Jay 1
KOOIJ Olav 2
MILAN Jonathan 2
HEALY Ben 0
VAN AERT Wout 2
BRENNAN Matthew 11
STORER Michael 0
SKJELMOSE JENSEN Mattias 1
MARTINEZ Lenny 2
LIPOWITZ Florian 3
GANNA Filippo 0

Evenepoel, Philipsen and Brennan are the only ones that figure to impact the game heavily. Interestingly, Skjelmose is a unique pick for our defending champ Salvarani. My unique pick is Pierre Barbier which I'll remind everybody whenever he gets a podium in a stage of the Tour of Taiwan or something.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And the unique pick of Oier Lazkano.

I don't see him on the list, but I guess you could be thinking of the women's game where I would expect him to be a unique pick, too.