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.

 

[tobydawq]

I have nine riders who haven't raced yet. That's too many. At least Tibor and Thibau were known late starters but as for the rest....

Does Senna Remijn even exist? I'd never heard of him before I read some season previews over the winter and am still yet to see him.

 

[Squire]

I have nine riders who haven't raced yet. That's too many. At least Tibor and Thibau were known late starters but as for the rest....

Does Senna Remijn even exist? I'd never heard of him before I read some season previews over the winter and am still yet to see him.

That's what you get for picking a bunch of cyclocrossers!

I still haven't found anything about Lafay's absence though. He did go on a training ride today according to his Strava, but his volume on Strava for February was quite low. So some illness is a possible explanation. Or he has decided to re-retire.

 

[Panda Claws]

Simmons not looking that promising so far.

 

[armchairclimber]

I have nine riders who haven't raced yet. That's too many. At least Tibor and Thibau were known late starters but as for the rest....

Does Senna Remijn even exist? I'd never heard of him before I read some season previews over the winter and am still yet to see him.

Listed for Catalunya

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I still haven't found anything about Lafay's absence though. He did go on a training ride today according to his Strava, but his volume on Strava for February was quite low. So some illness is a possible explanation. Or he has decided to re-retire.

There was an article on Wielerflits yesterday, they've reached out to the team and he has indeed been struggling with illness.

 

[Squire]

130 Buitrago points that nobody else gets. Nice! Bring on Tirreno.

40 for Morgado isn't too bad either, shows that he's somewhat back from his illness. But in ideal circumstances I had hoped for a bit more.

Unfortunately for me, Tiberi keeps delivering and is almost into profit. Same for Vansevenant.

 

[manafana]

Yeah im waiting on Blackmore to get racing, also Archie Ryan has yet to race he has no strava uploads and its worrying because he has previous knee troubles

 

[Earns1985]

Can somebody please explain me, what is Lotto´s plan with Kockelmann's schedule?

First Figuera Classic, Classic Var, Tour de Alpes Maritimes and now Strade Bianche?
I mean I am happy, that they let him ride one-day races, but shouldn´t they let him ride better races, where the chance that the race will be decided in a sprint is at least a bit above 0%?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Can somebody please explain me, what is Lotto´s plan with Kockelmann's schedule?

First Figuera Classic, Classic Var, Tour de Alpes Maritimes and now Strade Bianche?
I mean I am happy, that they let him ride one-day races, but shouldn´t they let him ride better races, where the chance that the race will be decided in a sprint is at least a bit above 0%?

Classic Var was a sprint race this year.

Based on the fact that he was meant to be leading out Grisel in the Bessèges stage he won, it's pretty clear Lotto see him primarily as a domestique, though. And his schedule confirms this.

 

[Squire]

Classic Var was a sprint race this year.

Based on the fact that he was meant to be leading out Grisel in the Bessèges stage he won, it's pretty clear Lotto see him primarily as a domestique, though. And his schedule confirms this.

If he continues to do as well as he has done, he will eventually force his way into a more prominent role as I said at the start of the season. But yeah, it does seem like Grisel and De Schuyteneer are splitting the races that Kockelmann should be leading between them for some reason. Looking at PCS, that seems to continue to some extent throughout the spring.

De Schuyteneer has looked dreadful in most sprints so far, and Grisel not much better. So there is still hope for us Kockelmaniacs. But it is a bit baffling that they keep insisting on not giving him a lot of chances so far.

For Strade Bianche in particular I'm not too worried (unless he crashes). When he didn't do Le Samyn, it's not like riding Strade takes away any other good opportunities. And it means that they might not waste him in Paris-Nice. If he can just get ahead of Grisel in the hierarchy, there are some very juicy French races he can do later. I'm salivating at the prospect of some huge Boucles de la Mayenne points.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Has anybody ever been outside the top 80 in march and gone on to win?

 

[Squire]

Has anybody ever been outside the top 80 in march and gone on to win?

That I don't know, but being way down at the end of February isn't necessarily a big deal. Rather big deficits can be made up quite quickly in the right circumstances. A few years ago I was almost 1500 points behind the leader after the Vuelta, but managed to close almost the entire gap in a few weeks to finish 2nd just ~100 points down (thanks Colbrelli!). Unforunately I don't think you will win this year or get anywhere close, but you can definitely climb a bit. Some of your big hitters haven't started their season yet.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Unforunately I don't think you will win this year or get anywhere close,

Thanks mate

 

[armchairclimber]

Well, I am mildly excited by my Strade team. Which probably means they'll all crash or have gastro- intestinal crises or something.

But on paper, pretty good looking ... especially the top 5 here.

Del Grosso
Seixas
Pellizzari
Kron
Withen Philipsen
Nerurkar
Dockx
Dinham
Isadore

 

[vladimir]

Well, I am mildly excited by my Strade team. Which probably means they'll all crash or have gastro- intestinal crises or something.

But on paper, pretty good looking ... especially the top 5 here.

Del Grosso
Seixas
Pellizzari
Kron
Withen Philipsen
Nerurkar
Dockx
Dinham
Isadore

I am mildly excited myself at the prospect of having 12 riders in Strade. Guess I can only be disappointed...

ADRIÀ Roger GAUTHERAT Pierre GUALDI Simone HERZOG Emil KRON Andreas LABROSSE Jordan NERURKAR Lukas NOVÁK Pavel PESCADOR Diego SEIXAS Paul VAN EETVELT Lennert VANSEVENANT Mauri