The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Samu Cuenca]

Ok so I have 2 questions - how do you know my riders?

And epis is retiring? Didn't see that anywhere. Really bad start to the game

You can see the teams in the spreadsheet Skidmark posted earlier: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bdgi...pgsx498a832urupauqrfbsnn&e=2&st=imsqzl6i&dl=0


Epis doesn't have a confirmed contract yet, but it has been rumoured that he is joining Petrolike.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

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.

Pogacar went from 2044 to 3656 in 2021 and was nowhere near the optimal team. Obviously 2021 is not the most representative year, but I reckon 2026 will be high-scoring enough to prevent Evenepoel from being an optimal pick.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Ok my team - ILMAESTRO - cq 2026

DERREK GEE-WEST (783): I picked him because he is the most exciting grand tour GC project in cycling

JAI HINDLEY (679): I picked him because he will win the giro d'italia

PAUL DOUBLE (471): I picked him because I like watching him attack on climbs. Probably not a very clever pick

EDOARDO ZAMBANINI (443): We are all going zambananas in 2026!

MIKEL LANDA (433): I picked him because he is my favourite rider

VICTOR LANGELOTTI (383): I picked him because I hope he can turn that tour of Poland performance more consistent in 2026.

RAUL GARCIA PIERINA (345): I picked him because of that one stage in the vuelta where he climbed well. And now he will be a leader at mobistsr

ALBERTO DAINESE (332): I picked him as he is a sprinter joining quickstep, and he is due a good year.

CHRISTOPHE LAPORTE (273): Visma best classics rider is an obvious choice considering his low scoring 2025

BENOIT COSNEFROY (268): when I first read the rules of the game, my first thought was 'i need to pick cosnefroy'. I didn't give it a second thought.

FILIPPO FIORELLI (246): I wanted to pick him for fun as I like him and his transfer to visma. Probably not a good tactical pick.

AFONSO EULALIO (242): I like his name. Also he is a talented rider and I get a good vibe from him.

ANTON SHIFFER (209): Hoping for some good climbing performances in a variety of races now that he joined a top team

ALEXANDER VLASOV (209): Picked in the hope that 2025 was a one-off. Generally he is a points scoring rider.

TOBIAS FOSS (196): due some results and has beaten pocagar mano a Mano

THOMAS GACHINGARD (182): always attacking!!! He should be a good pick for lots of results in different races

PAU MARTI SORIANO (174): I had exactly 174 points left and he was the only rider with 174 points

GIANMARCO GAROFOLI (168): a real talent. Hope to see him improve in 2026.

NICO VINOKUROV (160): Had to pick the vino option. His calendar suggests he will get to do some Asian races. I think he will get good points

ALEX ZINGLE (155): good rider who had a poor 2025.

FILIPPO CONCA (150): Think he will get a lot of chances to score points in smaller one day races.

ARVID DE KLIJNE (134): I always liked him because he is a late started and like ilmaestro he used to play rugby despite not being a massive guy. Also had a poor 2025 and is a very fast rider

EDGAR DAVID CADENA (130): I wanted to pick a mexican

DYLAN VAN BAARLE (126): I feel like this could go horribly wrong, but he's a monument winner at
126 points, yeah I just went for it

DANIEL FELIPE MARTINEZ (121): if he has one more good season in him, it's a no brainer

MATTIA GAFFURI (117): I wanted to pick a DSM rider. They have no good riders so someone like gaffuri has a lot of potential and should get lots of freedom

MERHAWI KUDUS (74): hoping he can turn it around after missing a lot of races in 2025 with injury.

FAUSTO MASNADA (71): don't remember why I picked this rider, never heard of him, must have been a misclick

GISOE EPIS (64): I think I got him confused with Alessandro verre

FLORIAN SENECHAL (53): Bargain


JAN TRATNIK (48): Hoping for some classics leadership

KOWN BOEWMAN (31): Risky one but he climbs well on his day

MATTHEW DIBHAM (25): Very talented, finally coming back after injuries. Looked good at the end of 2025.


Please bear in mind that I found out about the game 2 hours before the submission deadline, so that was how long I had to learn the game and pick my team. I never played before. I didn't know for instance that you could pick riders with a 0 score, until reading this thread today. Whoops

 

[Salvarani]

Pogacar went from 2044 to 3656 in 2021 and was nowhere near the optimal team. Obviously 2021 is not the most representative year, but I reckon 2026 will be high-scoring enough to prevent Evenepoel from being an optimal pick.

Then again... who is able to pick the optimal team? Going to be good and bad picks for everyone.

If Remco scores a lot, it would at least paper over the cracks for someone and could get one into the running. Especially, if the riders for others doesnt score as one would hope.

Remco + having a few other good picks could take someone far, if stars align. Is it enough to win? Depends a lot on how the chips fall for that team and other teams. Im not ruling out one of those team being able to win it, but it is very dependent on Remco himself of course.

We will see.

Nice with a few different strategies being around.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Pantani4ever's unique pick Vine wins the Australian TT. 50 points.
Mason07's unique pick Kielland O'Brien comes third. 25 points.
20 teams with O'Connor each get 20 points.
Hamish McKenzie into profit with 14 points.

I might regret replacing McKenzie with ANDERSEN Noah Lindholm Møller

 

[Pantani4ever]

I am the first leader of this year edition after Jay Vine victory in the ITT Nationals!

Anybody know if there is something wrong with Plapp? He finished 8th almost 3 minutes away from Vine. I considered him too but preferred other options.

I also wonder if I have the highest 2 riders combo in the game (except the Pogacar guys) with Vine and Remco...

 

[Pantani4ever]

Ok my team - ILMAESTRO - cq 2026

DERREK GEE-WEST (783): I picked him because he is the most exciting grand tour GC project in cycling

JAI HINDLEY (679): I picked him because he will win the giro d'italia

PAUL DOUBLE (471): I picked him because I like watching him attack on climbs. Probably not a very clever pick

EDOARDO ZAMBANINI (443): We are all going zambananas in 2026!

MIKEL LANDA (433): I picked him because he is my favourite rider

VICTOR LANGELOTTI (383): I picked him because I hope he can turn that tour of Poland performance more consistent in 2026.

RAUL GARCIA PIERINA (345): I picked him because of that one stage in the vuelta where he climbed well. And now he will be a leader at mobistsr

ALBERTO DAINESE (332): I picked him as he is a sprinter joining quickstep, and he is due a good year.

CHRISTOPHE LAPORTE (273): Visma best classics rider is an obvious choice considering his low scoring 2025

BENOIT COSNEFROY (268): when I first read the rules of the game, my first thought was 'i need to pick cosnefroy'. I didn't give it a second thought.

FILIPPO FIORELLI (246): I wanted to pick him for fun as I like him and his transfer to visma. Probably not a good tactical pick.

AFONSO EULALIO (242): I like his name. Also he is a talented rider and I get a good vibe from him.

ANTON SHIFFER (209): Hoping for some good climbing performances in a variety of races now that he joined a top team

ALEXANDER VLASOV (209): Picked in the hope that 2025 was a one-off. Generally he is a points scoring rider.

TOBIAS FOSS (196): due some results and has beaten pocagar mano a Mano

THOMAS GACHINGARD (182): always attacking!!! He should be a good pick for lots of results in different races

PAU MARTI SORIANO (174): I had exactly 174 points left and he was the only rider with 174 points

GIANMARCO GAROFOLI (168): a real talent. Hope to see him improve in 2026.

NICO VINOKUROV (160): Had to pick the vino option. His calendar suggests he will get to do some Asian races. I think he will get good points

ALEX ZINGLE (155): good rider who had a poor 2025.

FILIPPO CONCA (150): Think he will get a lot of chances to score points in smaller one day races.

ARVID DE KLIJNE (134): I always liked him because he is a late started and like ilmaestro he used to play rugby despite not being a massive guy. Also had a poor 2025 and is a very fast rider

EDGAR DAVID CADENA (130): I wanted to pick a mexican

DYLAN VAN BAARLE (126): I feel like this could go horribly wrong, but he's a monument winner at
126 points, yeah I just went for it

DANIEL FELIPE MARTINEZ (121): if he has one more good season in him, it's a no brainer

MATTIA GAFFURI (117): I wanted to pick a DSM rider. They have no good riders so someone like gaffuri has a lot of potential and should get lots of freedom

MERHAWI KUDUS (74): hoping he can turn it around after missing a lot of races in 2025 with injury.

FAUSTO MASNADA (71): don't remember why I picked this rider, never heard of him, must have been a misclick

GISOE EPIS (64): I think I got him confused with Alessandro verre

FLORIAN SENECHAL (53): Bargain


JAN TRATNIK (48): Hoping for some classics leadership

KOWN BOEWMAN (31): Risky one but he climbs well on his day

MATTHEW DIBHAM (25): Very talented, finally coming back after injuries. Looked good at the end of 2025.


Please bear in mind that I found out about the game 2 hours before the submission deadline, so that was how long I had to learn the game and pick my team. I never played before. I didn't know for instance that you could pick riders with a 0 score, until reading this thread today. Whoops

That's not bad at all for someone who just found out about the game and had little time building it! Hopefully you will have a lot of fun following your riders and come back with an even stronger team next year!

 

[ingsve]

I am the first leader of this year edition after Jay Vine victory in the ITT Nationals!

Anybody know if there is something wrong with Plapp? He finished 8th almost 3 minutes away from Vine. I considered him too but preferred other options.

I also wonder if I have the highest 2 riders combo in the game (except the Pogacar guys) with Vine and Remco...

Unfortunately you are only 2nd.

1	Mason07	68
2	Pantani4ever	50
3	Googolplex	34
3	Rufs	34
5	armchairclimber	25

 

[Panda Claws]

Pogacar went from 2044 to 3656 in 2021 and was nowhere near the optimal team. Obviously 2021 is not the most representative year, but I reckon 2026 will be high-scoring enough to prevent Evenepoel from being an optimal pick.

Pogacar in 2021 was on the optimal team though.
Vingegaard would have been last year too had he scored close to 3200.
Gilbert in 2011 also managed it.

History tells us that for Evenepoel that would typically require around 3400 points. But there have indeed been years where 3800 points were required for such an expensive pick. There's also been years where 2800 would have been enough.

One caveat is that even if Evenepoel would theoretically be perfect than putting him into your team would require swapping multiple riders instead of just one. If you make the wrong decisions there then you'd have indeed been better off not picking him in the first place.

 

[hayneplane]

3 unique picks of which 1 was a neo pro zero pointer. Just 3 zero pointers as I don’t think this years crop will come close to replicating the Seixas/AWP cohort.

Was surprised at how many of my higher point GC oriented picks are quite high up on the rarity score so they will make or break my teams season. Really thought Garofoli and Vermaeke would have been picked by a lot more people.

Derek Gee-West could be my best chance at a big gain on the pack as the signing announcement coming so late may have deterred a few others from including him.

Looking at the game stats the instant standout of missing is Pelayo Sanchez.

 

[Leadbelly]

I also wonder if I have the highest 2 riders combo in the game (except the Pogacar guys) with Vine and Remco...

I have a high 3 rider combo if that counts with Remco, Ayuso and Brennan. They're pretty much in my team to give me a bit of interest in the biggest races, though a decent profit on all isn't completely out of the question.

My more popular picks include Seixas, Tarling, Blackmore, Widar, Decomble and Remijn. More than enough has already been said about them all.

After that we're into fairly out there selections, but I think there still could be a few gems among the rare/unique picks.

Pinarello (218 points, 1 pick) - Should get a fair amount of freedom at NSN to do what he likes. Did quite well at the late season Italian races even if the results don't necessarily show that, so has the ability to score in one-day as well as stage races.

As for other NSN riders. Williams? Too many knee question marks. Hirt? Will probably give a decent return, but not in the most exciting way.

Van der Tuuk (161, 3) - Euskaltel with a good rider!! The team is changing their calendar a bit with less Belgian type races and more exotic ones which isn't ideal for this type of rider, but I think he can still prosper as he's a real racer.

De la Calle (154, 3) - His performance at Tro Bro Leon got him on my long list a long time ago. Not a bad climber either.

Koerdt (135, 1) - Got thrown in at the deep end by Picnic with a hell of a lot of WT races, but was showing a nice progress as the year went on.

Umba (120, 1) - Bit surprised he is unique as he had some good results in 2025. Solution Tech have some new investment and like some other teams should be at the low hanging fruit on the exotic calendar.

Okay, running out of stamina now.

Some riders from the new PCT teams. Pickrell (not many opportunites at IPT) and Florez from Modern Adventure. Gruszczynski from MBH.

Abner Gonzalez and Rota from Illes Balears Arabay as the team has some more investment and should be riding more/better races.

Over in Eastern Europe we have perennial favourite Daniel Turek and two riders from the best CT team in the world - Mika Heming and Kral.

Further west we have Gillet at Nice, Fayolle at Nantes or whatever they're called now and two riders from the new Swiss CT team Elite Foundations - Aebersold and Victor Jean.

Losing willpower now.

There's a few more I've missed - Darder (Caja), Macias (Burgos), Henrik Pedersen (Uno-X), Biesterbos (Picnic), Fougner (Unibet), Armitt (Novo Nordisk) and finally Smoras (NSN Devo).

Anyway it's all about giving me some interest at all level of races with a lot of teams covered.

Done. Phew. Good luck all.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

I have 10 unique picks. Anybody has more than that?

 

[Earns1985]

So the big day has come! One of he favourites of the year!

First reactions, when I saw all your teams and the populartity tables:

1.) I am happy, that I didn´t miss any rider this year. All popular picks, that I don´t have, I had at least at my list and I and I consciously decided against them. Only one out of the 50 most popular picks, which I dind´t consider was 0 pointer Mattia Agostinacchio, but I can live with that.
2.) I am really surprised, that Paul Seixas is really the most popular rider this year with a cost of 661. My favourtites for this had been Lennart van Eetvelt, Carlos Rodriguez and Jarno Wider, which came in the following places. But even Seixas value 73 players out of 91 players isn´t that high as we had for most popular picks in other years. I remembered for example, that Alapilippe was one year in 103 out of 104 teams or so. This has of course to do with the high amount of options, which the last season created for us. So what i wrote a few days ago, become true to a certain amount.

What I read here are very interesting strategies especially according the more expensive riders. The Evenepoel strategy is quite interesting. Also what I read from @Squire was quite ineresting to read. As I already mentioned, I took this year again a bit the conservative route especially regarding my more expensive riders.

I will write in another post in detail about my team, but I will need a bit of time for that. Just a small spoiler:

I have a unique pick in Jannis Peter and I am really happy with that!

 

[Earns1985]

Can't say I was too happy about Pogi's early calendar for 2026, but well, here we go... He basically needs to win everything scheduled so far and add the Vuelta to become a good pick.

NAME	VALUE	POPULARITY
POGACAR Tadej	5080​	2​
VAN EETVELT Lennert	302​	68​
LAPORTE Christophe	273​	59​
COSNEFROY Benoit	268​	64​
ZANA Filippo	237​	13​
POOLE Max	215​	60​
ZINGLE Axel	155​	65​
DECOMBLE Maxime	152​	35​
VALTER Attila	137​	23​
DE KLEIJN Arvid	134​	22​
ROTA Lorenzo	99​	8​
DEGENKOLB John	60​	2​
KIRSCH Alex	57​	2​
KRON Andreas Lorentz	50​	38​
TRATNIK Jan	48​	14​
SENTJENS Sente	46​	11​
TUCKWELL Luke	46​	17​
STITES Tyler	45​	1​
HIRT Jan	28​	9​
CARSTENSEN Lucas	22​	2​
BEHRENS Niklas	16​	33​
JAKOBSEN Fabio	11​	44​
ARNDT Nikias	10​	2​
SANCHEZ MAYO Pelayo	5​	46​
VIDAL Victor	3​	1​
MCKENZIE Hamish	1​	8​
CHARRET Camille	0​	3​
ANDERSEN Noah Lindholm Møller	0​	11​
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia	0​	29​
BALLERSTEDT Maurice	0​	9​
DE VYLDER Lindsay	0​	3​
OBHOLZER Theodor	0​	1​
KRAL Krystof	0​	2​

It was pretty tough to leave out so many obvious picks (even Williams had to go at one point), but usually I'm not good at those medium, high-sized ones anyway. And as mentioned before, I got a bit bored watching races with Pogacar, so maybe this helps a bit.

It seems like I at least didn't miss a super talented zero-pointer this time. Although I must admit that I never heard about Senna Remijn.

So you are going for the green jersey this year?

 

[slow_climber]

So the basis of my team

Injured or a bit off form last year, hopeful for recovery
Tiberi, Landa, Van Gils, Van Eetvelt, Gaudu, Laporte, Cosnefroy, Rodriguez, Pithie, Zingle, Martinez, Kron, Tratnik, Carr, Williams

New teams (or same team but leader has left) so expecting more freedom or change in fortune
Uijtdebroeks, Welsford, Gloag, Poole, Pickering, Steinhauser, Ghys

Young stars breaking out (hopefully)
Seixas, Morgado, Teutenberg, Widar, Nerurkar, Pericas, Hobbs, Erzen, Remijn, Tuckwell, Grisel

In terms of my high cost picks

Morgado is a risky, high payoff pick (hopefully). With Del Toro doing a higher level schedule, hoping Morgado will be the key UAE point farmer.

I’m a bit fearful of Uijtdebroeks as he might not actually be as good as he thinks he is. But with a new lease of life at Movistar I’m hoping he will be regular points scorer

It was either van Wilder or Tiberi, but I went for Tiberi. Van Wilder did get freedom from Remco early last year, so not sure he will benefit as much as people think from the no-Remco situation

Have Robbie Ghys as my only unique pick, but happy with rare picks of Morgado (see above), Welsford (Sam Watson was good pick last year as Ineos sprinter!), Nerurkar (he can get points in one day and GC), Erzen (Bahrain don;t have many sprinters) and Grisel (Lotto need some points scorers)

Finally, I nearly went for Remco or De Lie as the big ticket, but found it too hard to limit the other areas of the team. Forgot about Pelayo Sanchez!

 

[repre]

Some of the most annoying things about cycling in general and this game in particular is lack of info about prospects.

In NBA and NFL you get crazy amount of info about every noteworthy prospect that enters the league or may enter in 1-2-3 years.

In cycling... you google *** out of it and find nothing even about top prospects. Only guys like Remco, Ayuso or Noval get a bit of publicity.

And then you pick young guys for this game almost blindly. Somebody has to make a website about cycling prodigies...

 

[MADRAZO]

MORGADO Antonio Tomas 635 (5 picks) - The most recent expensive addition to my team before deadline. A lot of Tarlings, Blackmores and Vermaerkes had to go to make room for him, but I think he could be worth it. Here's your new Hirschi/Del Toro, I'm telling you. Morgado has a lot of things going for him as a CQ game pick in 2026. He looked like a complete beast at the start of 2025 before getting ill and losing form for the classics. Then he had crystal disease in the summer, before he got covid in the autumn. And he still managed to make himself somewhat expensive. Now he has switched to Pog's coach and he will ride a juicy calendar. Only proper domestique duty will be the Giro, which might actually give him a boost for the rest of the season where he will ride non-WT stage races against farmers and postmen. He has said that he can't wait to show how much of a better climber he has become, he now loves the cobbles, and he really got me excited when he started talking about racing 'some Italian races' in the autumn. I'm also sensing a surprise at the WC. Be scared. Be very scared.

As usual its clear you have done your homework very well with great analysis and research of it all

You definetly succeed in making me scared about Morgado. He could indeed be the new UAE-Hirschi in the 1 day races and be a very good pick if he manages to keep his best form most of the year. He was definetly tempting with that high potential but the instability from now more years (even if he had good excuses) just made him risky, even if thats also the reason he could be a very good pick now . I think what otherwise made me look past his potential with so many other good options in that pricerange was that good old Mou (that was right about Almeida last year, as you also noticed, seems very clear that its Jan Christen that will be the new Hirschi this year. But I think Morgado will be a good pick for you again like Almeida last year.

Also like Van Poppel and Buitrago and considdered both a lot. Buitragos similar scores from previous years just put me of him, even if the potential to improve a lot is definetly there and then Van Poppel just were up against many other good choises, but agree with you that 1000 point is very realistic.

And also did considder most of your other picks I dont have, maybe except Asgreen, but for sure he could also be a solid pick. Prost and Docxk were also close to get the final space that I gave to Behrens to fit the remaining points, and Gaudu was close to getting Tarlings place, Nordhagen close to get Mohoric' place and so on so as usual we have had many of the same thoughts even if some conclusions have been different.

 

[repre]

As usual its clear you have done your homework very well with great analysis and research of it all

You definetly succeed in making me scared about Morgado. He could indeed be the new UAE-Hirschi in the 1 day races and be a very good pick if he manages to keep his best form most of the year. He was definetly tempting with that high potential but the instability from now more years (even if he had good excuses) just made him risky, even if thats also the reason he could be a very good pick now . I think what otherwise made me look past his potential with so many other good options in that pricerange was that good old Mou (that was right about Almeida last year, as you also noticed, seems very clear that its Jan Christen that will be the new Hirschi this year. But I think Morgado will be a good pick for you again like Almeida last year.

Also like Van Poppel and Buitrago and considdered both a lot. Buitragos similar scores from previous years just put me of him, even if the potential to improve a lot is definetly there and then Van Poppel just were up against many other good choises, but agree with you that 1000 point is very realistic.

And also did considder most of your other picks I dont have, maybe except Asgreen, but for sure he could also be a solid pick. Prost and Docxk were also close to get the final space that I gave to Behrens to fit the remaining points, and Gaudu was close to getting Tarlings place, Nordhagen close to get Mohoric' place and so on so as usual we have had many of the same thoughts even if some conclusions have been different.

Thought long and hard about Buitrago as well. I have a sense that he will go nuclear this year. But the alternatives was cheaper and showed upside previously. Still surprised he is unique pick.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I wasn't really sure what to expect the consensus to be this year but relieved to see the top 30 in the popularity table only contains a few riders I didn't at least strongly consider (Pithie, Tarling, Hagenes).

I'm only going to bother talking up my rarer picks.

PHILIPSEN Jasper (1269) 7 picks

Fairly sure this is the most I've spent on one rider. Not much to say about this one really since it's fairly well documented how a couple of major crashes semi-wrecked his season. Safe-ish - should be fairly close to the peak of his career. I seriously considered Brennan as an alternative - I thought he would be more popular, especially with the best players. Also seriously considered Girmay as an alternative (or addition but couldn't squueze him in with Seixas).

GARCIA PIERNA Raul (345) 2 picks

Seems to have been around a while but in fact only 24. Steadily improving and was in the process of a career best until having to DNF the Vuelta. Now gets a move to a bigger team but should still get plenty of freedom since there are only a few riders on Movistar who are clearly superior at this point and they need someone to step up. Also strongly considered Adria instead but in the end he was a bit more expensive and didn't quite fit in.

GAROFOLI Gianmarco (168) 7 picks

It's now the post-Remco age at QuickStep and the team looks to be headed back closer to what it used to be in terms of structure if not results. Plenty of room for young riders to make their mark and hopefully Garofoli will be one of them. I like the fact that he did (most of) 2 GTs last season and still came out of the Vuelta with decent results afterwards which hopefully points to a step forward this season.

ARTZ Huub (164) 1 pick

Yeah this one probably was the most likely of mine to be unique although I'm still mildly surprised. His 1st pro season went pretty well, 4th in a Romandie sprint behind Brennan, only half a minute down in the Dutch nats TT behind Hoole, finished the Vuelta in decent shape. Just hope the ex-Wanty guys get a fair chance there because it's mostly Lotto after the merger.

LABROSSE Jordan (155) 5 picks

Finding it harder to talk this one up, maybe this was a mistake. He's been at Decathlon 2 and a bit years now. He did manage to finish 5th in the Vuelta ramp finish that Gaudu won which is a big result and shows what he is capable of but a bit of an outlier. Got a 3 year extension for some reason just before that but then so did Sander De Pestel !

ROLLAND Brieuc (155) 4 picks

Groupama-FDJ are not exactly overloaded with climbing talent these days since the likes of Pinot, Storer and Martinez left plus questionmarks over Gaudu. I'm hoping this guy can step up to be at least a low-level GC rider this year. He had no GC results in his 1st pro year - his promise is really just on the basis of a few Vuelta breaks where he did very well behind the likes of Ayuso, Bernal and Landa.

BURGAUDEAU Mathieu (104) 5 picks

My only non-WT rider. Not a lot to say except he's coming off a bad year after a few years of being a solid 400 pt rider and he's still only 27. No idea what the reason was except that whatever it was, it wasn't bad enough to force him off the bike since he had 70+ race days.

BIESTERBOS Frits (51) 4 picks

I suppose he gets quite a lot of hype since he was 2nd in the World Gravel champs between Vermeesch and Mohoric and he's probably not going to be quite as good on the road as that might suggest. But he was already showing enough promise on a continental team in pro races to suggest he was well worth a WT contract. That team is crying out for anybody who can get any kind of results.

QUINN Sean (27) 4 picks

Somehow beat McNulty and Powless to win the US Champs in 2024. I don't believe in fluke results, simply per occam neither of those riders was anywhere near their best that day and he's never going to be in their league. For this game he's cheap squad filler mainly because he only really started last season in July but still managed a couple of top 10s from breaks in the Vuelta to show he's still capable of his previous 150-200 point seasons.

 

[Pantani4ever]

Unfortunately you are only 2nd.

1	Mason07	68
2	Pantani4ever	50
3	Googolplex	34
3	Rufs	34
5	armchairclimber	25

I was confident I am number 1. Did not expected someone would have number 3,4,6 and 8 from the ITT... Even if Vine wins the RR too I may still be second considering how many Aussie Mason07 has...

 

[Salvarani]

I thought more would have picked up Leo Hayter, 11 picks.

I expected at least 20-30 picks for him, given his price.

 

[vladimir]

I had 5 unique picks in 2025. Two of them are in my 2026 as well. And I think one of them will be my only qnigue pick this year.

I was half right. Iker Mintegi was a uqnique pick for me in 2025 and is also a unique pick in 2026. He crashed when in the winning break on the last stage in Andalucia in February, and didn't score a single point after May. So I'm confident that he should at least double his score this year. Very surpised to see that Jasper Stuyven also was a unique pick. I thought that he would be quite popular now that he doesn't have to ride for Mads P in most races. I feel he looked as strong as ever in some races last year(like in the Ronde). So still think he is an exciting pick for this year.

 

[ingsve]

And then you pick young guys for this game almost blindly. Somebody has to make a website about cycling prodigies...

cycling4fans.de used to publish a mock list every year of the top 50 U-23 talents. It seems they stopped doing this in 2018.

Cycling4Fans - Stiftung Fahrertest: U23 Mock List

(Looking at the 2018 list is interesting with Pogacar at no 1, Evenepoel at no 16 and Vingegaard at no 18.)

 

[hayneplane]

Thought long and hard about Buitrago as well. I have a sense that he will go nuclear this year. But the alternatives was cheaper and showed upside previously. Still surprised he is unique pick.

I had him last year and was on course to be a great pick until a big crash derailed his season.

 

[escartin]

HIRSCHI Marc 800
SEIXAS Paul 661
DEL GROSSO Tibor 598
O'CONNOR Ben 563
MAS NICOLAU Enric 560
NYS Thibau 423
VAN GILS Maxim 362
GAUDU David 315
VAN EETVELT Lennert 302
MOHORIC Matej 290
LAPORTE Christophe 273
COSNEFROY Benoit 268
RODRIGUEZ CANO Carlos 262
MOZZATO Luca 243
VLASOV Aleksandr 209
THIJSSEN Gerben 192
ZINGLE Axel 155
DECOMBLE Maxime 152
POLITT Nils 137
THORNLEY Callum 118
PICKERING Finlay 112
ROTA Lorenzo 99
NOVAK Pavel 97
GUERNALEC Victor 96
L'HOTE Antoine 69
DATI Tommaso 37
HIRT Jan 28
RODRIGUEZ GARAICOECHEA Oscar 25
BEHRENS Niklas 16
CARR Simon 15
JAKOBSEN Fabio 11
WILLIAMS Stephen 10
AGOSTINACCHIO Mattia 0

I am not over the moon about having Hirschi as my most expensive pick but he is quite rare which can obviously mean several things... I am however reassured that both O'Connor and Mas have been picked by a lot of people. never would have expected Seixas to be top pick.

the riders I seem to have missed are Widar, Poole, Phillpsen (none ever crossed my mind), Sanchez Pelayo (totally missed) and Pithie (decided against).

only 2 repeat picks from last year in Nys (year 4 in my team) and Mohoric. there were several I thought about and seeing comments I am now wondering if I should have included more. all of Kron, Torres, Lamperti, Nordhagen and Bisiaux are all picked more than 20 times.

my 2 unique picks are ex-WT guys now at continental level, one in France, one in Japan.