The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Squire]

46 teams with Nys have to start factoring in losses.

Was this knee problem/ operation known about and we (yes, I am one of the 46, as well as being one of 8 with him in the Spring Classics game) were ignorant of something that should have been known, or has the LidlTrek medical team been trolling us?

I was aware of niggling health issues, like recurring back pain etc. which lowered my enthusiasm for him even more. I can't remember reading about knee problems, but I wasn't going to pick him anyway so I didn't research him that much. He did miss some CX races early on I think, which could have been the knee. Not sure.

It's never a good thing to see any rider be injured and having had quite a few of those situations myself I really sympathise with those who picked him, but Nys starting even later is of course good for my team. But one annoying thing about it is that now he probably will become a bad pick for other reasons than just being overrated, so I don't get to say 'I told you so' on that one.

 

[hayneplane]

Pellizzari continues to be my bright spot this week. I think someone described him as a glorified Piganzoli upthread.

I picked the latter thinking Giulio would be too limited by the stacked roster of leaders at RBH to get enough opportunities to score. Turns out he has just forced his way through with weight of performance on the road and would have been a great pick 🤦‍♂️

 

[Squire]

I picked the latter thinking Giulio would be too limited by the stacked roster of leaders at RBH to get enough opportunities to score. Turns out he has just forced his way through with weight of performance on the road and would have been a great pick 🤦‍♂️

I know it's tempting to try to jinx riders you don't have, but come on! He's barely halfway to profit yet.

 

[Panda Claws]

46 teams with Nys have to start factoring in losses.

Was this knee problem/ operation known about and we (yes, I am one of the 46, as well as being one of 8 with him in the Spring Classics game) were ignorant of something that should have been known, or has the LidlTrek medical team been trolling us?

I'm not that low on Nys yet. He left a ton of points on the table after spring last year. Still think he'll get into profit, but just be kind of a meh pick.

 

[RedheadDane]

Kron out of T-A... sick...

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Kron out of T-A... sick...

Not that surprising, and probably the reason why he lost more than 10 minutes on Friday.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not that surprising, and probably the reason why he lost more than 10 minutes on Friday.

Still anoying.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Still anoying.

Yes. Annoying he got sick and lost the 10 minutes. But better he doesn't finish and gets his strength back instead of struggling through a stage for 5 points.

 

[armchairclimber]

He owes us nothing this year

 

[RedheadDane]

He owes us nothing this year

I think he owes us, but especially himself, to stay healthy.
He has earned it. I think he has had his share of bad luck.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Just out of curiousity, who out of your team do you think will win Flanders and Roubaix?

Flanders - van baarle
Roubaix - seneschal

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Martinez my only hope of any points this week - crashes on final stage of Paris nice. Just typical man

 

[vladimir]

Martinez my only hope of any points this week - crashes on final stage of Paris nice. Just typical man

Didn't cost you any points though

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Didn't cost you any points though

Couple of stage points probably, but it could have been so much worse. Between that, the Lamperti DNF costing him third in the points classification and Pellizzari falling from second to third at Tirreno, today kind of felt like it was meant to drive home the point that this is not going to be a high-scoring year.

 

[hayneplane]

Couple of stage points probably, but it could have been so much worse. Between that, the Lamperti DNF costing him third in the points classification and Pellizzari falling from second to third at Tirreno, today kind of felt like it was meant to drive home the point that this is not going to be a high-scoring year.

Were the high DNF rate today due to the low time cutoff ahead of the final circuit loop?

 

[vladimir]

Were the high DNF rate today due to the low time cutoff ahead of the final circuit loop?

Not sure what you are referring to here. Only 5 DNFs in Tirreno and in P-N there was no final loop.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Were the high DNF rate today due to the low time cutoff ahead of the final circuit loop?

Yes. They had announced before the stage that everyone in any sort danger of getting lapped would be taken out of the race, because due to today's elections they couldn't close the roads for long enough to allow groups to restart once the front group had passed.

 

[Earns1985]

This week basically was supposed to be a week for me, where I thought it´s more about limit limitation, but with Martinez and Steinhauser and basically all the other popular picks which I don´t have not scoring big (Tiberi, Vlasov, Gaudu, del Grosso) this turned out to be scoring wise a really good week for me. The news about Nys of course is a big bummer..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The highest-ranked team without the eternal enigma that is Dani Martínez is now down in 14th. Obviously he's having a good start to the season, but at 40 picks it's still a little bit crazy that he's this ubiquitous.

 

[YellowSocks]

Despite scoring a few points this week, I find myself at the back of the peloton again, and this strange guy is on my wheel now. I can clearly hear him muttering insane things about Edoardo Zambanini and Giosuè Epis. This is an uncomfortable situation. I'd better not strike up a conversation.

 

[tobydawq]

Despite scoring a few points this week, I find myself at the back of the peloton again, and this strange guy is on my wheel now. I can clearly hear him muttering insane things about Edoardo Zambanini and Giosuè Epis. This is an uncomfortable situation. I'd better not strike up a conversation.

Take care on the descents. You wouldn't want to end up like Vingegaard.

 

[YellowSocks]

Take care on the descents. You wouldn't want to end up like Vingegaard.

I was about to ask him to take a pull but I changed my mind.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Despite scoring a few points this week, I find myself at the back of the peloton again, and this strange guy is on my wheel now. I can clearly hear him muttering insane things about Edoardo Zambanini and Giosuè Epis. This is an uncomfortable situation. I'd better not strike up a conversation.

Expert level race craft, saving energy for the finale and using mind games to get in the heads of the rivals.

Have you heard of nico vinokurov???

 

[Earns1985]

So WPA at the startlist of the three point farming races Nokere, Denain and Koksijde, which are all ranked 1.Pro. It´s time for him to start scoring..

 

[skidmark]

Update #9: DJW Takes Top Spot

The one-two stage race punch of Paris-Nice and Tirenno-Adriatico is done, and wild weather led to crashes, peloton splits, and the biggest gaps in generations at the former, while a hilly-but-not-high-mountain parcours led to back-and-forth lead changes and bonus second chasing in the latter. How did the varied racing translate into the CQ game? Glad you asked.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	DJW	786
2	Senderos	656
3	peixotini	611
4	Shakes	570
5	pman	565

The gaps at the top this week weren't quite Paris-Nice level, but definitely more on that end then Tirenno-Adriatico. DJW comes out decisively on top, winning by 130 points with some high scorers on their team. Tops was Giulio Pellizzari, continuing a fine start to the season with 250 points for his 10 game owners, DJW included. As well, DJW had the most popular high scorer in the game in Dani Martinez (227, 40), and rare picks Valentin Paret-Peintre (111, 5) and Mathys Rondel (91, 3). Senderos lands in second with the same big one-two of Pellizzari and Martinez, but then a bigger drop to next highest scorers Laurence Pithie (59, 46) and Alexandr Vlasov (40, 28). To round out the podium, peixotini tops 600 points thanks to Martinez, Georg Steinhauser (171, 13), Rondel and Jonathan Milan (62, 2).

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	DJW	(+35)
2	Senderos	(+25)
3	bminchow	(+21)
4	Bicycle_Boy	(+15)
5	kingcycling	(+14)
5	Jon_Ezeitza	(+14)
5	Sneekes	(+14)

Same top 2 here, as DJW makes a HUGE move up the standings - this was their team's first time scoring Green Jersey points for a weekly top 15 so this result kickstarts what has been a quiet season so far. bminchow joins them on the podium, moving up 21 spots as an owner of the Martinez/Steinhauser combo.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	slow_climber	135
2	Rufs	101
3	peixotini	100
4	SafeBet	97
5	karaev	92

slow climber extends their team's lead in this, scoring 18 more points while Rufs stays put at 101. peixotini scores 30 to leapfrog into 3rd one point back, while 4th and 5th overall don't score this week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(+1)	slow_climber	3381
2	(-1)	Rufs	3204
3	(+3)	postmanhat	3097
4	(+5)	Shakes	3071
5	(-2)	jsem94	3061
6	(-1)	ingsve	3008
7	(+10)	peixotini	2948
8	(-4)	repre	2947
9	(-1)	Nyssinator	2891
10	(+11)	the asian	2802

slow climber's good week sees them gain 240 points on Rufs to take over the top spot in the rankings, while lower down there's movement all over the top 10. Third to fifth are only separated by 36 points, and 3rd through 10th by less than 300. It's early days in the game, but undoubtedly a bonus to be off to a good start, and this week we see peixotini and the asian rocket into the top 10 at the expense of karaev and Pantani4ever who fall out.

This week the pendulum of CQ points swings back to the one-day races, with four 1.PS races from Wednesday to Friday as the appetizer for the first Monument of the season on Saturday.

spreadsheet link