The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Devil's Elbow]

So much for a lot of Vansevenant points in Oman, and Torres won't make up for it either...

 

[hayneplane]

So as expected a week, where I dropped a few spots, as I only had Kockelmann riding, while the GC in Oman (Vansevenant and Torres) will be relevant for this week.

With Mas out of UAE tour with a training crash, I am getting more and more worried about him as a pick and also in general for the expensive rider combo O'Connor and Mas (15 riders). Tiberi for example looks much better as a pick in that price range right now.

I am still a bit worried about not having Decomble and Vlasov, but not that much anymore as in the beginning of the week. Vlasov looked way better than last year yes, but he still clearly has 6 GC riders in his team, who are higher in the pecking order than him, so I hope, that he will surely be used a lot as a domestique this year, which would limit his points even if he is again in top shape.
About Decomble, I would say he looks like a guy, who will gain like 400 points this season, which makes him a good pick, but also not an absolutely crucial one. It has to be seen, in how many races with weak start lists like Besseges he will start, so that he can score. Right now he is scheduled for Itzulia and Catalunya, where I don´t see big point potential for him for example..

As long as he isn’t badly injured I am not fussed that Mas is missing UAE as it is a stacked field where I am not convinced he would have scored much in early season form. If he adds another smaller stage race instead he might actually increase his scoring chances.

 

[RedheadDane]

Having found myself somewhat surprisingly in the early break, I'm starting to realise the futility of my action.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

In the space of 2 weeks I've had zingel illness, double completely bottling alula, Foss crash and de kleijn having a baby. Not going well for me at the minute.

Now langelotti DNF with illness and my unique pick merwahi kudus in hospital after a crash in oman. At least I'm still ahead of samu cuenca

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Evenepoel scoring 49% of my team's total doesn't seem like a recipe for long term success.

 

[Shakes]

For my own pleasure, on each rider page I added a graph with cumulative points. Standing on a point you can see the contributoin of individual races (GC + stages are separate lines). Same as in table below but pictures say more than a thousand words!

/Now really not touching it anymore.

 

[RedheadDane]

For my own pleasure, on each rider page I added a graph with cumulative points. Standing on a point you can see the contributoin of individual races (GC + stages are separate lines). Same as in table below but pictures say more than a thousand words!

Just out of curiosity? Is it only for riders who have scored 10 points or more?

(BTW, I just noticed that Larsen's points from being part of the TTT lineup on Mallorca aren't listed on the site, only on CQ itself. There might be others in a similar situation.)

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

(BTW, I just noticed that Larsen's points from being part of the TTT lineup on Mallorca aren't listed on the site, only on CQ itself. There might be others in a similar situation.)

The same is true of Evenepoel, and I suspect all who took points there. The points are still included where it matters in the team totals, but not in the tables at the bottom of a rider page, presumably because results are extracted from the race results pages of CQ, where TTTs are differently formatted.

 

[Shakes]

@Armchair Cyclist @RedheadDane

Ah damn. Formatting is indeed different for T.T.T (everything comma separated on one line). It was not processed as a result. Annoying. With lack of TTT's not sure if I will fix this. As, like Armchair mentioned, the points in main rankings are still correct. Just building up score from individual races now misses the TTT(s)

 

[Squire]

Houcou ready to wreak havoc on the Omani sprint field - no Bennett or Moschetti to tow around.

So close!

 

[RedheadDane]

Ah damn. Formatting is indeed different for T.T.T (everything comma separated on one line). It was not processed as a result. Annoying. With lack of TTT's not sure if I will fix this. As, like Armchair mentioned, the points in main rankings are still correct. Just building up score from individual races now misses the TTT(s)

I see.
Regarding the other question; it's possible I was just coincidentally looking at riders who only have points through the TTT.

 

[Shakes]

I see.
Regarding the other question; it's possible I was just coincidentally looking at riders who only have points through the TTT.

Let me know if there are bugs though!

 

[Nevs]

Evenepoel scoring 49% of my team's total doesn't seem like a recipe for long term success.

He is, as of now, outscoring my entire team.

 

[armchairclimber]

I see Uijtdebroeks is another rider to succumb to the curse of my team.

 

[tobydawq]

So much for a lot of Vansevenant points in Oman, and Torres won't make up for it either...

Vacek riding backwards up the Cumbre del Sol was certainly not ideal, either.

 

[skidmark]

Update #4: Armchair riding to the top

The early season racing carried on last week with Etoile de Besseges and Vuelta Valenciana, where despite the neutralization of the TT, Remco Evenepoel continued his early season tear. Unsurprisingly, the standings this week are topped by teams including him.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	Armchair cyclist	483
2	Pantani4ever	364
3	kingcycling	352
4	Berflamand	348
5	adamski101	335

Main game veteran and CQ game organizer extraordinaire Armchair Cyclist blows away the field this week, almost cracking 500 points and winning by over 100. Of course, this was anchored by the aforementioned Evenepoel, who snagged 208 points for his 12 team owners. AC's team was also bolstered by the likes of Maxime Decomble (79, 35), Aleksandr Vlasov (74, 28) and Biniam Girmay (44, 5). In a distant second was Pantani4ever, with 364 thanks to Remco/Decomble/Vlasov, with kingcycling pulling out third with Pellizzari (102, 10) on top of Remco.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	Armchair cyclist	(+46)
2	kingcycling	(+29)
3	adamski101	(+27)
4	Berflamand	(+21)
5	skidmark	(+19)

AC doubles up here, winning by another wide margin and moving up roughly half the table. kingcycling takes 2nd here, repeating on the podium, while adamski101 ends up in 3rd as the best scoring non-Evenepoel team on the week.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	Pantani4ever	79
2	karaev	62
3	postmanhat	56
4	SafeBet	52
5	Armchair cyclist	45
5	Mason07	45
5	Onizuka999	45

A weekly win will still get you in the top 5 overall, but you'll need more than that to go higher. And indeed, Pantani4ever has gone better, finishing in the top 5 in week 1 and the top 10 in week 2, on top of this week's 2nd place. And of course, this early in the season that means it's likely to translate well into the...

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+2)	Pantani4ever	1201
2	(+7)	18-Valve. (pithy)	1023
3	(+5)	Wvv	997
4	(-3)	karaev	982
5	(-1)	SafeBet	973
6	(-4)	postmanhat	971
7	(+18)	JumboVismaFan	944
8	(+2)	Riverside	938
9	(+3)	ingsve	935
10	(+7)	Rufs	923

karaev gets bumped out of top place as Pantani4ever takes over, with 18-Valve becoming the other team to cross 1000 points on the season to date. Down lower in the top 10, JumboVismaFan crashes in, entering the top 10 alongside ingsve and Rufs, at the expense of Earns1985, slow climber and repre falling out.

This week the 2.PS Tour of Oman is already well underway, with the 2.1 Tour de Provence and Vuelta Murcia accompanying it alongside a few 1-days, and more riders get their seasons underway.

spreadsheet link

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Oh dear, seems very early to get my annual decent performance out of the way. But it's good at the same time.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Oh dear, seems very early to get my annual decent performance out of the way. But it's good at the same time.

What I like most about you Armchair, is your unrelenting optimism.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Vacek riding backwards up the Cumbre del Sol was certainly not ideal, either.

Do you know if anything happened? Or did he just give up?

 

[Shakes]

He is, as of now, outscoring my entire team.

Someone complaining a pick gets a lot of points is odd indeed!

 

[Earns1985]

Carlos Rodriguez scheduled for the Tour de la Provence, where the final GC should consist of the best climbers in the race, as there is a 14 km mountain top finish at stage 2.

It´s his first race after his crash at the tour 2025, so let´s see how good he already recovered.
He is really popular, but a quick check of the current overall shows, that not every team who is currently high in the ranking have him. (7 out of the current top10 overall have him).
Same also occurs for popular riders like Widar, Laporte and van Eetvelt, who will also come into action in the next couple of days/weeks..

 

[tobydawq]

Do you know if anything happened? Or did he just give up?

I don't know. I was away the last three days and only caught up on the racing yesterday. I saw him in the bunch just before the climb but then never on the climb. I assume he just gave up. Really annoying. I assume the same will happen on Saturday with the finishing climb being much too much of a real mountain for him.

 

[Salvarani]

8th and 10th for Pescador and Rouland for me in the GC in Oman.

Pescador faded a bit towards the end of Green Mountain, but he is into profit now! Good pick so far.

I said I wanted to see Rouland in a stage-race after his warm-up races. He looks like a real diesel climber and gained places on Green Mountain. Pulled in the group behind, dropped most of them, and fought all the way to the end after not being able to follow the accelerations. A good performance nonetheless.

Torres and Pickering didnt do much here though. Only minor points at best. Could be a struggle with these two, but the season is long. Torres doing work for the team and Pickering climbing alright, but losing a lot of time on the flat stages.

 

[Squire]

19th on the week with no Remco is a pretty good result for me.

I said I wanted to see Rouland in a stage-race after his warm-up races. He looks like a real diesel climber and gained places on Green Mountain. Pulled in the group behind, dropped most of them, and fought all the way to the end after not being able to follow the accelerations. A good performance nonetheless.

Torres and Pickering didnt do much here though. Only minor points at best. Could be a struggle with these two, but the season is long. Torres doing work for the team and Pickering climbing alright, but losing a lot of time on the flat stages.

Rouland looking like a decent pick so far. Cofidis seem to really be getting into the points farming thing, so he could get more of these opportunities.

Torres was sacrificed for the benefit of the elderly, but still I had hoped for more. He didn't exactly shred the group to pieces. He could be a frustrating pick again, but I'm still confident that UAE will find enough meme stage races for him to score some points even if he's not the world-beater everyone thought.

 

[Netserk]

Torres was sacrificed for the benefit of the elderly, but still I had hoped for more. He didn't exactly shred the group to pieces. He could be a frustrating pick again, but I'm still confident that UAE will find enough meme stage races for him to score some points even if he's not the world-beater everyone thought.

he will also ride o gran camino with yates

https://twitter.com/x/status/2020147479304405113

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