The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[DJ Sprtsch]

We might have chosen him a year early?

Or a year too late?

 

[repre]

Hagenes and Mohoric looking lively, but has no point to show for it

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Heartbreak for Hagenes (and by extension my team) in Samyn. At least M. Grisel is now the fourth guy into profit (M. Dinham, C. Perez Lopez, M. Brenner) from my roster.

 

[skidmark]

Update #7: SafeBet Wins Opening Weekend

The end of February is upon us and the points continue to build as the game takes shape. This week was not quite as high as last week with its multiple stage races, but with the big opening races we also see most riders with their seasons underway, and CQ teams will start to get a sense of how their season is going to shape out.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	SafeBet	600
2	LosBrolin	585
3	AlTarf_ua	529
4	Eyeballs Out	528
5	the asian	501

Five teams this week top 500 points, but only one team reaches 600, and does so exactly. SafeBet has a few winners on their team this week, namely Filippo Zana (146 ponts, 13 teams) winning in Sardinia, Paul Seixas (130, 73) in France, and Matthew Brennan (130, 11) in KBK with a handy contribution from Christophe Laporte (88, 59) for good measure. LosBrolin is 15 points back with the alliterative duo Gianmarco Garofoli (96, 7) and Luke Lamperti (68, 25) instead of Zana in the combo above. AlTarf_ua ends up in third by a single point with Zana/Seixas/Brennan as wel as Davide Piganzoli (54, 3) and unique pick Ludovico Mellano (54 points).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	SafeBet	(+26)
2	AlTarf_ua	(+21)
3	LosBrolin	(+19)
4	manafana	(+17)
5	Eyeballs Out	(+15)

There's a repeat winner at the top here as SafeBet doubles up, moving up 26 spots on the overall! And, in fact, a fairly rare repeat of the podium, with AlTarf_ua and LosBrolin swapping spots in 2nd and third here.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	SafeBet	97
1	slow_climber	97
3	karaev	92
4	Pantani4ever	79
5	Rufs	75

Coming into this week, SafeBet had scored 22 and 30 points in weeks 2 and 3 respectively, but was 45 points back from slow climber in the lead. But of course a weekly win is 45 points, so with this week's win and slow climber out of the top 15, we have a tie at the top of the Green Jersey standings. Places 2-4 don't score this week, but Rufs gets 8 points on the week to sneak into the top 5.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+1)	Rufs	2549
2	(-1)	slow_climber	2496
3	(+6)	repre	2374
4	(+4)	postmanhat	2351
5	(+1)	karaev	2303
6	(-3)	Pantani4ever	2297
6	(-2)	ingsve	2297
8	(-1)	jsem94	2284
9	(+1)	Shakes	2249
10	(+1)	Nyssinator	2230

With a solid week in 12th place, and with only a mediocre week from slow climber, Rufs gets into the top spot by a mere 53 points. The top 10 are separated by just over 300 points total, so it's still quite close at this point. There is movement everywhere with no team in the top 10 holding the same spot, but the movement is mostly minor. Nyssinator is the only team to enter the top 10 this week, and it's at the expense of peixotini, who falls out.

This week is one of the less busy weeks on the calendar, with only 3 1-day races and one stage of a stage race. But the magnitude of the races is anything but small - after Le Samyn and Trofeo Laigueglia mid-week, the weekend holds no less than Strade Bianche and the opening stage of the Race to the Sun.

spreadsheet link

 

[armchairclimber]

Interesting week or so ahead.

Trofeo -
Cosnefroy, Pericas, Porter, Nerurkar

Strade Bianche -
Seixas, Pellizzari, Del Grosso, Kron?

Paris-Nice
Uijtdebroeks, Lamperti, Krijnsen, Poole, Zingle


T-A
Pellizzari, Del Grosso, Kron?

Not a huge team, yet. But plenty of potential for scoring. Really looking forward to seeing Del Grosso.

 

[adamski101]

Nice to see me rarest pick Laurenz Rex get some decent points over the last few days.

 

[postmanhat]

I dont know really. Kron has been decent in SB before. Maybe the poster has a fear of him crashing again or he just dont think Kron will have a chance to score points here, so it will be a "wasted" race day. Kron could have a decent chance at finishing top 30 or more, imo, and that would be a few points. Like he finished 10th in 2023, if he can repeat that it would be a good result.

Yes. Having picked Kron before a couple of times, got the impression that he was crash-prone/unlucky and Strade will usually punish you for either. Completely forgot about his previous top-ten finish so if he's added, will be watching with the same level of trepidation as Van Eetvelt..

 

[tobydawq]

Nice to see me rarest pick Laurenz Rex get some decent points over the last few days.

Wild turnaround from breaking his back a month ago.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

On the numbers I had a good week finishing in the top 5 but that was due to Zana and Garofoli being fortunate enough to take part in a race that somebody had to win.

In reality it was a very bad week for the prospects of my team. I have a lot of eggs in the Philipsen basket and both Philipsens are off to a slow start to say the least. Mohoric crashed out and the three riders I hoped would farm points in the French races (Labrosse, Rolland and Burgaudeau) are so far showing exactly why they were rare picks.

 

[Squire]

Morgado's illness seems to have wrecked his form again. A good Morgado could have won Drome Classic the way it turned out. Really bad week. My only points came from the inconsequential Seixas and Laporte.

And Hagenes being caught today was so heartbreaking. If the finish was at 1km to go, I would have had a Hagenes/Page 1-2. Hagenes does at least look good enough to score quite a bit during the season if he can get away from Brennan occasionally.