The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Earns1985]

That's pretty unlucky as I was going leave him out for similar reasons, then saw he was bib 1 at The TDU, so decided to take a risk again. This starlist-based 'strategy' has worked very well so far with Brenner, Dinham, O'Connor and Brennan too. Was hoping for a little more from the latter two, but Brennan's surprise win today has hopefully given him the confidence to get some relatively easy points in the upcoming one-day races.

Can´t agree more on that one. Basically the same happenend to me. Wanted to leave Kron out, but than saw him on the startlist with the 1 and I thought it was too risky too leave him out, so luckily he made my team again. Brenner was already on my team before the startlist came out, but I had thoughts of excluding him, but with the startlist these thoughts had been gone..

So basically also a good start for my team. Let´s see, where my name will come up in the first update tomorrow?
Next week doesn´t look too promising for me startlists wise, but the lists are still incomplete so let´s see.
Looking forward to Vansevenant in AiUla and good for me is, that Omrzel had been removed from the startlist for this race. He had also been a rider, where I though a lot of including him. His price in the end made the decicion against him. But as he is in 19 teams, he is of course a rider to look at.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yeah, I was seriously considering leaving out Kron too, but then I decided that even if he had a third bad year in a row, at a cost of 50, it wouldn't be too much of a disaster.
And now I'm wondering if he could go into profit, not just compared to last year - which he already has - but compared to 2023 as well.

 

[Wvv]

13th spot right now, mostly thanks to Kron and Brenner. Much better start than last season, when I never made up lost ground.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Last year I had the lead after week 1 and 2. It was a long, slow and steady downhill after that.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Going into the sprinters race yesterday with only one rider, one who is a non-sprinter (Masnada) , sums up the state of my team at the moment. Hopefully can get some points in the desert and Mallorca because I am way down.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

A bit hard to tell with the lack of a last week tab on the site, but I think I just barely managed that top-10 in the week I was hoping for.

On the downside, I also managed the most unbelievable way to miss out on scoring opportunities I've had in five-and-a-bit years playing this game courtesy of that kangaroo causing Bjerg (of course it had to be my rarest pick) to sustain multiple broken bones. It's still hard to believe that that was real life and not a below-average article on The Onion. Pretty hard to see him finding both fitness and form in time for the classics...

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm sure that last year, as soon as we had an actual ranking - as opposed to the early days of the game, when we're still partially ordered alphabetically, not by points scored - I was last, and then I pretty much stayed there.

It'll be interesting to see how long I can cling onto this for me rather unprecedented top-10 spot.

Oh, hello!
De Kleijn not doing Alula Tour because he just had a baby, which could mean that Changizi will get a chance to sprint.
You know the saying; "One's baby is the other's sprint opportunity", or... something...

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

De Kleijn not doing Alula Tour

Well, that's a bummer.

 

[postmanhat]

Surprise win?

Surprising in that he looked like repeating last year's TDU performance of starting well, then fading. Really wasn't expecting him to win yesterday, and hopefully he's found a bit of form/confidence now that Visma are participating in the one-day races?

Disproportionately picking riders based on riders with bib1 in The TDU starlist has paid off as briefly first. I am sad enough to have checked, and it's very noticeable how different the first four teams are already. Should be a really interesting year in the game!

Alula
My alternative pick for SOQ was Zana, so hoping Vansevant can get off to an equally good start
Erm, Jakobsen

 

[hayneplane]

3 riders making their seasonal debuts tomorrow at Alula Tour. Some potential for good points if they don’t end up working fully for a teammate. Vermaeke hopefully has some UAE stardust sprinkles on him and Garofoli to continue the rich promise from the EC road race at the back end of last year.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Somehow missed my second rider going into profit over the week-end. Congrats to Cesar Perez Lopez who has already 5x his 2025 score. 2 down, 31 to go. Vamos.