The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[EvansIsTheBest]

It's fairly high up, but the most common highest-scoring week of the season (as well as the week with the highest weekly scores of all time) is Vuelta GC week, which coincides with the Canadian double-header, Fourmies and one of the busiest weeks of Italian autumn races (five of them on the current schedule). This week is not close to competing with that, and there are a couple of others that beat it too.

Yup. 14 instances of teams scoring over 2000 points in a week, 10 of those for the 2022 Vuelta GC alone. 3 for the Giro GC (two in 2014 and one in 2022). 1 for the Tour GC (in 2015). Amazingly bminchow did it twice in the same season (the aforementioned 2022 Vuelta and Giro).

It's rare to crack 1000 points in non GT weeks (and no one has ever come close to 2000 points) but this is usually one of the best candidates to do so. Itzulia/Roubaix being another. Suisse/Slovenia/Belgium is a sneaky good opportunity to stack some points too.

 

[Squire]

It's rare to crack 1000 points in non GT weeks (and no one has ever come close to 2000 points) but this is usually one of the best candidates to do so. Itzulia/Roubaix being another. Suisse/Slovenia/Belgium is a sneaky good opportunity to stack some points too.

Yeah, I was gonna mention the Suisse week. I think it was the highest scoring week in at least one of the seasons. There are also some occasional big weeks in August/early September. A lot of 2.1 stage races in addition to Poland and Renewi, and some random Belgian and Italian semi-classics. Those 'lesser' WT stage races tend to have game-relevant riders doing well, as the up-and-coming stage racey types often come alive around then. For big non-GT weeks you really want as many stage races as possible.

I think the Catalunya week isn't usually the best for high scores, as the field there is often stacked with riders who are a bit too expensive for the game. It's a bit the same with the WT cobbled classics. They don't always bring the big points either, for the same reason. But the Coppi&Bartali race can sometimes throw up some big scores for young talents which does help.

 

[skidmark]

Update #10: slow climber climbs away

The first monument of the season is in the books, and with a half-dozen single day races on the week it was a busy one, although one with a lot of underwhelming results for popular or consequential riders in this game. As a result, several teams in the weekly spotlight are taking their first bow this season, with one glaring exception.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	RestInPunk	524
2	Basque Street Boys	414
3	slow_climber	404
4	search	399
5	Googolplex	380

RestInPunk takes week 10 as the only team to clear 500 points; this is largely thanks to a career resurgence at Unibet by unique pick Dylan Groenewegen (210 points), with two wins on the week. It didn't hurt to get another win out of rare pick Jasper Philipsen (135, 7), and contributions from decent one-day sprinters like Axel Zingle (52, 65) and Gerben Thijssen (48, 26). Samu Cuenca lands in second (I still have you as your Basque Street Boys name of the last couple of seasons, let me know if you want to change it, but I think it's even funnier now that your team is hardly Basque at all), as one of the two teams who took a very fun chance by picking Tadej Pogacar (280 points). I can't imagine the thrill of that MSR finale being even more exciting, but having the winner in your team would be one way. Third belongs to slow climber, whose biggest contribution this week comes from Matys Grisel (147, 5), as everyone might expect. Seriously, I watched every single race this week and typing this update is the first time I can ever remember registering that name. Well done!

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	RestInPunk	(+22)
2	PandaClaws	(+10)
2	Mason07	(+10)
4	vansteenbergen	(+9)
4	Googolplex	(+9)

RIP doubles up this week, rocketing up the charts a full 22 places. Panda Claws ties for second thanks to 106 from unique pick Matthew Fox, as well as 75 from Primoz Roglic (5 teams) and the Zingle/Thijssen combo; Mason07 shares that spot with contributions from Philipsen/Roglic and Pascal Ackermann (78, 8).

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	slow_climber	165
2	Rufs	101
3	peixotini	100
4	SafeBet	97
5	karaev	92

Of the top 7 teams this week, 5 had zero points in the Green Jersey coming into the week, one had 2 points, and one was already leading the competition with 135. It's perhaps no surprise then, that none of the top 5 overall apart from slow climber score this week.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	slow_climber	3785
2	(-)	Rufs	3365
3	(+2)	jsem94	3287
4	(-1)	postmanhat	3279
5	(-1)	Shakes	3243
6	(+2)	repre	3149
7	(-1)	ingsve	3140
8	(+5)	Eyeballs Out	3120
9	(-2)	peixotini	3095
10	(+2)	Sneekes	3064

That disparity carries over to the top 10 overall, as slow climber doesn't gain any positions but does gain 243 points on Rufs to open a commanding lead. Further down things are a fair bit closer, as there's more than 400 points between 1st and 2nd, but 301 points between 2nd and 10th. Eyeballs out and Sneekes enter the top 10 this week at the expense of Nyssinator and the asian.

This week the spring rolls along with Catalunya and Coppi e Bartali as the stage races, and, uhhh, "Ronde van Brugge" and "In Flanders Fields" as the rebranded WT one-day races.

spreadsheet link

 

[slow_climber]

After another great week, my mind obviously turns to those members of my team with zero points! Human nature being what it is, I'm not happy with their contribution.

Stevie Williams and Robbe Ghys appear to be injured (so let them off)
Senna Remijn and Mikel Landa haven't raced yet
Finlay Pickering and Noah Hobbs appear to be trying but not scoring
So only Max Poole's lack of points seems to be unexplained, he is meant to be this years Oscar Onley!

However, shouldn't really complain with Matys Grisel scoring >200 points

 

[tobydawq]

After another great week, my mind obviously turns to those members of my team with zero points! Human nature being what it is, I'm not happy with their contribution.

Stevie Williams and Robbe Ghys appear to be injured (so let them off)
Senna Remijn and Mikel Landa haven't raced yet
Finlay Pickering and Noah Hobbs appear to be trying but not scoring
So only Max Poole's lack of points seems to be unexplained, he is meant to be this years Oscar Onley!

However, shouldn't really complain with Matys Grisel scoring >200 points

Remijn and Landa finally had their season debuts today.