The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[jsem94]

Naah, I'm gonna be realistic:

Bottom-3 it is.

But you're not actually attempting to win, so it's a bit different for the gimmick teams

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

A bit harsh on Widar imo. He was too eager to follow the initial attack by Ayuso, Almeida and Seixas. He was on his own for a while trying to close the gap. The group behind caught up with him and he paid for the effort that he had done. Hopefully a lesson learnt, more than anything else.

Hopefully he'll learn that trying to follow Ayuso, Almeida and Seixas when they start their TT 20 minutes later than him isn't a good idea either.

 

[Salvarani]

Hopefully he'll learn that trying to follow Ayuso, Almeida and Seixas when they start their TT 20 minutes later than him isn't a good idea either.

Dont see how those two things go together, but sure.

 

[Kazistuta]

Dont see how those two things go together, but sure.

It was a joke towards Widars laclustre TT result today..

 

[Salvarani]

It was a joke towards Widars laclustre TT result today..

I got that.

 

[Squire]

Mr. 'Best form ever' Lafay keeps getting removed from startlists.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Mr. 'Best form ever' Lafay keeps getting removed from startlists.

Makes you wonder what the issue is, considering Tietema confirmed on X last week that Lafay would race Alpes-Maritimes. But yes, this doesn't look good.

 

[Squire]

Makes you wonder what the issue is, considering Tietema confirmed on X last week that Lafay would race Alpes-Maritimes. But yes, this doesn't look good.

And now Faure Prost has also been taken off the startlists for the two French races this weekend. My team just doesn't want to race.

 

[RedheadDane]

Makes you wonder what the issue is, considering Tietema confirmed on X last week that Lafay would race Alpes-Maritimes. But yes, this doesn't look good.

Maybe he accidentally did go to Japan and started selling cheese.
Not sure how he could have accidentally gone to Japan...

 

[YellowSocks]

And now Faure Prost has also been taken off the startlists for the two French races this weekend. My team just doesn't want to race.

Are you sure they're not on a strike? Have you checked your emails?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Pretty excited to see Seixas, Widar and Poole all in action in Algarve before the highlight of the week: Pierre Barbier in the Grand Prix Alaiye.

You certainly got that right.

 

[repre]

Plapp goes nuclear the second i stopped believing in him is peak CQ fantasy

 

[Squire]

Plapp goes nuclear the second i stopped believing in him is peak CQ fantasy

Indeed.

I've had him for three years now, with only slight improvements each year and a lot of frustration. But to be fair, his point scoring has been underwhelming so far this year too before UAE Tour. Let's see if he can continue getting results like this. As someone who has suffered through him going missing for large parts of the season for three years, I'm still not convinced. But it would be the most CQ game thing ever of course.

Decent UAE stage for me. Nordhagen cementing his top 10, Gaudu and Dunbar showing a little bit of promise after being quite bad so far. Only O'Connor is still horrible.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

It's not going to be a week to write home about in terms of scoring, but at least Crabbe is giving me plenty to get excited about. Always fun to have a super-rare pick making a real splash.

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm sure that if Øxenberg had just eased up, and allowed himself to be caught by the favourites, then he could have done much better than dropping over 10 minutes in around 5 km...

 

[tobydawq]

Indeed.

I've had him for three years now, with only slight improvements each year and a lot of frustration. But to be fair, his point scoring has been underwhelming so far this year too before UAE Tour. Let's see if he can continue getting results like this. As someone who has suffered through him going missing for large parts of the season for three years, I'm still not convinced. But it would be the most CQ game thing ever of course.

He already has 21 race days which seems insane to say in February, so he'll probably have a break soon and lose all form.

 

[tobydawq]

It's not going to be a week to write home about in terms of scoring, but at least Crabbe is giving me plenty to get excited about. Always fun to have a super-rare pick making a real splash.

Really good scouting. I had not noticed him at all before this season (and don't usually look the Flanders Baloise way when assembling my team as they usually have nothing to show for themselves).

 

[Salvarani]

He already has 21 race days which seems insane to say in February, so he'll probably have a break soon and lose all form.

Plapp has also done well here before at UAE Tour, this climb.

He can put in these one-off type of performances. Like his stage-win in Giro or his MTT-performance in the Tour.

He is also at the end of like a peak form, cycle, here. Like you say, can he keep the form this time? Who knows.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

More Vino points

 

[YellowSocks]

Classic Var: Simmons 92nd, Lévêque 97th.

We chose to decline post-race interviews for better recovering.

 

[Squire]

More Vino points

Next week might be very good for you. Pau Marti could get a boatload of points in Rwanda against a bunch of children and local farmers.

 

[hayneplane]

I'm sure that if Øxenberg had just eased up, and allowed himself to be caught by the favourites, then he could have done much better than dropping over 10 minutes in around 5 km...

Not sure he could have done anything anyway as he looked like he was on the verge of getting dropped by Tarling for several minutes.

 

[Blues in the bottle]

I forgot to mention this back in January - longtime game participant (and former winner!) Blues in the bottle messaged me a little over 24 hours after the publication deadline expressing chagrin over realizing that they had missed the deadline this year. I agreed to do what I've done in the past in such circumstances - the team is not 'officially' entered, meaning that it won't feature in the overall or weekly/green jersey points, but I made a team page for them and included their team highlighted in yellow in the 'Rankings' tab but not the 'Update' tab, the latter of which I consider to be the official standings.

I know that may be confusing to some as the 'Rankings' tab will have slightly different standings than the 'Update' tab, but I've found in the past that it's a good solution to keep everyone on the same rules while providing the opportunity to follow along for someone who just earnestly missed the deadline. Plus I usually put the Popularity Team in there (I forgot to do that this year! AC I'm gonna message you asap to get that lineup), so those standings are usually a bit different already.

Anyway, Blues would have won the week as a holder of both Morgado and Riccitello, so it reminded me that I had yet to explicitly mention that situation on this thread.

Skidmark, thank you for putting my team in and more importantly for running this game.

All players,
Best of luck to all of you. I am embarrassed for my late entry. I really know better. Please forgive me.

BitB