The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[RedheadDane]

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.

Exactly! So why did he keep going, rather than ease up?

 

[repre]

Exactly! So why did he keep going, rather than ease up?

Cause he doesn't care about minor places like fantasystas do?))

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

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

No worries. Shame you couldn't get your team in before the deadline. Hopefully we can have a duel in the spring classics that's as fun as 2023.

 

[RedheadDane]

Cause he doesn't care about minor places like fantasystas do?))

He went from a minor place (in GC) to an even minorrer place.

Also, @Ilmaestro99... are you just gonna zoom right past me without waving?

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Omloop starts on Saturday

At last.

 

[armchairclimber]

Not a bad weekend. Steady points with the inconsequential Seixas. Best really was Riccitello who is now my top scorer... and a meaningful rare pic, quite surprisingly to me.n He has recouped well over a third of his cost before the end of February. Pretty pleased with J G Martinez too.
Nordhagen added to the haul as well as some minor points for bit part players.

Big disappointments so far: Poole, Cosnefroy, Hobbs and Zingle. All of them quite popular picks though.

 

[del1962]

Simon Carr in profit, decent points from Seixas, Danny Martinez, Lenny Van Eetvelt and Vlasov

L'Hote, Fabio Jakobsen and Madous off the mark

 

[repre]

Simon Carr in profit, decent points from Seixas, Danny Martinez, Lenny Van Eetvelt and Vlasov

L'Hote, Fabio Jakobsen and Madous off the mark

Yes, fantastic performance by Jakobsen.

 

[del1962]

Yes, fantastic performance by Jakobsen.

Well he got points for finishing a WT race. Which is just short of half is cost

 

[tobydawq]

Simon Carr with a rare good performance in a rather dire period for my team. Laporte of course did a(n approximation of) Van Gils. Never take a CQ point for granted, confirmed.

Oh, and Poole was a no-show in Algarve. That's definitely positive for me (if sad for him).

 

[tobydawq]

Yes, fantastic performance by Jakobsen.

Just two more such performances, and he's into profit.

 

[Squire]

Rather average week for me. Some decent things and some bad things.

Positives:
Carr into profit and looking good for some more farming.
Nordhagen, Vlasov, Van Eetvelt, Seixas, Laporte for some okay but not earth-shattering points.
Remco dropped like a stone.
Poole not looking like he's going to haunt me quite yet.

Whatevers:
Gaudu and Dunbar looking semi-okay despite not getting many points.
DFM with some points for my rivals, but could have been worse. And he's always been good in this race.
Widar looking okay-ish without scoring.
Hobbs is at least getting support from his team, including Van den Berg, despite not quite managing to feature in the sprints so far.

Negatives:
Morgado out of Algarve with illness. Hopefully not another case of illness destroying his classics season again.
Laporte crashing.
Brenner reminding me again how stupid I was for cutting him despite him being nailed-on for my team throughout most of the team creation process.
Cosnefroy being a pure domestique for elderly Belgian and brainless kid.
Lafay, De Kleijn, Sanchez, Withen Philipsen and Faure Prost still being AWOL. At least Faure Prost has posted on his Instagram about his season debut having to be postponed one week.
O'Connor being absolutely dreadful.

 

[AmRacer]

Rather average week for me. Some decent things and some bad things.

Positives:
Carr into profit and looking good for some more farming.
Nordhagen, Vlasov, Van Eetvelt, Seixas, Laporte for some okay but not earth-shattering points.
Remco dropped like a stone.
Poole not looking like he's going to haunt me quite yet.

Whatevers:
Gaudu and Dunbar looking semi-okay despite not getting many points.
DFM with some points for my rivals, but could have been worse. And he's always been good in this race.
Widar looking okay-ish without scoring.
Hobbs is at least getting support from his team, including Van den Berg, despite not quite managing to feature in the sprints so far.

Negatives:
Morgado out of Algarve with illness. Hopefully not another case of illness destroying his classics season again.
Laporte crashing.
Brenner reminding me again how stupid I was for cutting him despite him being nailed-on for my team throughout most of the team creation process.
Cosnefroy being a pure domestique for elderly Belgian and brainless kid.
Lafay, De Kleijn, Sanchez, Withen Philipsen and Faure Prost still being AWOL. At least Faure Prost has posted on his Instagram about his season debut having to be postponed one week.
O'Connor being absolutely dreadful.

Remco on the Positives list?

 

[Salvarani]

Remco on the Positives list?

He is being cheeky as he didnt pick him

 

[search]

I see my unique pick Victor Vidal started his "pro" career with a 12th place in Rwanda today. I doubt he'll be a very decisive pick, but will be interesting to see how competitive he is, He came up from the French amateur scene, among others winning the L’Étape du Tour at la Plagne last year.

 

[hayneplane]

I see my unique pick Victor Vidal started his "pro" career with a 12th place in Rwanda today. I doubt he'll be a very decisive pick, but will be interesting to see how competitive he is, He came up from the French amateur scene, among others winning the L’Étape du Tour at la Plagne last year.

Never heard of him until you posted this but that is a pretty cool story in this age of junior super talents.

 

[hayneplane]

Not a bad weekend. Steady points with the inconsequential Seixas. Best really was Riccitello who is now my top scorer... and a meaningful rare pic, quite surprisingly to me.n He has recouped well over a third of his cost before the end of February. Pretty pleased with J G Martinez too.
Nordhagen added to the haul as well as some minor points for bit part players.

Big disappointments so far: Poole, Cosnefroy, Hobbs and Zingle. All of them quite popular picks though.

I had a very strong UAE tour but dragged down by the same 4 underperforming riders you mentioned.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Positives
-nico Vinokurov
-still ahead of Samu Cuenca
-the grinta of Giosuè epis

Whatevers
-Vlasov
-pau Marti
-DFM
-Gee
-van Baarle


Negatives
-Laporte crashed
-Kudus crashed
-foss crashed
-gachingard crashed
-fausto is rubbish
-langelotti is rubbish
-Landa doesn't race
-hindle doesn't race
-de klihn doesn't race
-dainese might be the worst pick of all time
-double was too expensive
-at least one of my rider has not a pro contract.

Desperately need Zambanini to come from altitude and start scoring more points than pocagar. Anyway at least I wasn't stupid enough to pick o'connor.

 

[slow_climber]

Not a bad weekend. Steady points with the inconsequential Seixas. Best really was Riccitello who is now my top scorer... and a meaningful rare pic, quite surprisingly to me.n He has recouped well over a third of his cost before the end of February. Pretty pleased with J G Martinez too.
Nordhagen added to the haul as well as some minor points for bit part players.

Big disappointments so far: Poole, Cosnefroy, Hobbs and Zingle. All of them quite popular picks though.

Wishing I had kept Riccitello in my team, surprised he was only picked by 6 teams, but there was a lot of competition at the 500 to 600 point level. Cut him for Uijtebroecks, who looks like he will frustrate me all year.

 

[skidmark]

Ah yes, that time in the CQ season when you hit the first bump in the road, offering bad omens ahead for your team...

Remco finishing 10th in February after winning everything before isn't the worst thing if it's a blip. But it does confirm that his potential thermonuclear ceiling that his 12 owners probably hoped for in their heart of hearts is unlikely.

Poole and Widar were disappointing (Widar only somewhat) but they're popular so not the hugest loss.

More worryingly, some of my potentially most impactful (ie rare) riders did fairly poorly. Pavel Novak was not someone I had high hopes for as I just tossed him in at the end on a flier, but Kevin Vermaerke was definitely a deliberate choice and an interesting joker, owned by 18 teams and on a combo rebound/move to UAE pointsmaxxing year. They finished 29th and 30th in UAE, 7 and 6 points, the least amount possible more than the 5 finishing minimum. That's almost a troll at that point, I'm offended. Mattia Gaffuri (2 teams) finished 38th. Was really hoping for those kinds of riders to finish in the teens, KV higher. Lorenzo Rota (8 teams) finishes 24th in Alpes-Maritimes, just out of the points.

One of my most popular omissions (and one of the last omissions, and an easy one-for-one comparison for a rider I did opt for at the same price) in Nordhagen shows proof of concept for those who picked him with a top 10. Other guys I considered (Tiberi, Plapp, Gee) also beat Remco.

Ah well, onwards and upwards to Het Nieuwsblad!

 

[RedheadDane]

Positives:
All my guys in UAE finished, so... I guess that's... something...
Still ahead of @Samu Cuenca

Negatives:
Øxenberg dropping like a stone on Mobrah, and like another stone on Hafeet
None of my guys elsewhere scoring anything
@Ilmaestro99 and @YellowSocks just zooming right past me without waving
(Future Negative) Trek not doing KBK?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Pavel Novak was not someone I had high hopes for as I just tossed him in at the end on a flier, but Kevin Vermaerke was definitely a deliberate choice and an interesting joker, owned by 18 teams and on a combo rebound/move to UAE pointsmaxxing year. They finished 29th and 30th in UAE, 7 and 6 points, the least amount possible more than the 5 finishing minimum. That's almost a troll at that point, I'm offended. Mattia Gaffuri (2 teams) finished 38th. Was really hoping for those kinds of riders to finish in the teens, KV higher.

Really? He's not an out-and-out climber, there was a pretty brutal MTF and UAE were lining up with Del Toro and Yates. UAE Tour was simply not the race you pick Vermaerke for and as a fellow owner he did nothing to worry me this week.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Trek not doing KBK?

Incorrect.

 

[RedheadDane]

Incorrect.

Okay, I blame PCS! Why do they scare people* like that?











*By "people" I of course mostly mean one weird Danish woman with a CQ team consisting of only Danes, several of whom being Trek riders.

 

[tobydawq]

Really? He's not an out-and-out climber, there was a pretty brutal MTF and UAE were lining up with Del Toro and Yates. UAE Tour was simply not the race you pick Vermaerke for and as a fellow owner he did nothing to worry me this week.

Agreed, AlUla Tour was a bigger problem.