The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Eyeballs Out]

Not good news from 10 days ago although I'd only just seen it - Garofoli out with a long term knee injury after being hit by a stone in Strade Bianchi. He was looking like having a breakthrough year.

 

[armchairclimber]

Catalunya saved by Uijtdebroeks and Riccitello's mediocre efforts.
Otherwise all a bit bobbins. But Lamperti stormed intop profit with 5 points.

 

[Shakes]

Catalunya saved by Uijtdebroeks and Riccitello's mediocre efforts.
Otherwise all a bit bobbins. But Lamperti stormed intop profit with 5 points.

Lamperti, i thought he was still with peloton in last 20km. Was surprised he wasn't there at end anymore.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Lamperti, i thought he was still with peloton in last 20km. Was surprised he wasn't there at end anymore.

Had a mechanical, to continue the streak of bad luck that seemingly every single game-relevant rider has been a victim of already.

 

[Squire]

The scores after MSR aren't forward looking at all. It doesn't know whether all the riders are healthy and will continue to score or if they are all going to get shut down in a couple weeks (covid style). A big reason why we know this season sucks is because of the amount of guys that are injured/out for a while and won't score. There's also reason to believe guys like Steinhauser and Tiberi won't sustain their scoring over an entire season. I'd be shocked if we are still on a high pace by the end of the classics season. But also can't discount Seixas and Laporte being awesome and providing basically everybody with a solid foundation.

Yeah, I hear you, but with all the ridiculous ways riders have avoided scoring points so far, I was thinking more about the season-to-date rather than going forward. But of course, some of the injuries are going to have a long-term impact, like Van Gils, Nys, Küng and potentially Poole not being ready.

Not good news from 10 days ago although I'd only just seen it - Garofoli out with a long term knee injury after being hit by a stone in Strade Bianchi. He was looking like having a breakthrough year.

Speaking of the devil ...

Lamperti, i thought he was still with peloton in last 20km. Was surprised he wasn't there at end anymore.

He had a mechanical in the run-in to the finish. Again, 2026 be 2026-ing.

 

[armchairclimber]

Yeah, I hear you, but with all the ridiculous ways riders have avoided scoring points so far, I was thinking more about the season-to-date rather than going forward. But of course, some of the injuries are going to have a long-term impact, like Van Gils, Nys, Küng and potentially Poole not being ready.

Speaking of the devil ...


He had a mechanical in the run-in to the finish. Again, 2026 be 2026-ing.

I am regretting Poole more than some of the others because I knew it was Snogging disease and that can just linger on for years.... as Cavendish would testify. I probably should have known better.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

If pozzovivo makes his comeback, can I sub him into my team?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

If pozzovivo makes his comeback, can I sub him into my team?

Unfortunately you'll need someone to launch an Experienced Riders Game before he'll become an option, but there's no doubt I'd rather have him than his former teammate Stephen Williams right now.

 

[Earns1985]

Lipowitz (1065 points, 3 teams): It´s no secret, that he is my favourite rider. Had him last year and because of this, I could enjoy his breakthrough even more. His price (because of his no scoring in 2025 after the tour) made him still an option for this year. Before Bora announced his schedule, he was even in my team. But what kicked him out was the announced schedule for him. Very few races before the tour and these even together with Remco and/or Roglic. So even if he would have a fantastic season, 1500 points seems to be the limit, so to be still competitive here in this game, I decided not to include him.

O'Connor (563 points, 28 teams) and Enric Mas (560 points, 27 teams): The decicion in the end was O'Connor and Mas or Lipowitz. In the end I decided for O'Connor and Mas because of their announced schedule. Both are riding the giro and O'Connor is also in for some early seson points in Australia. Mas at a later stage will ride the vuelta without having the tour in his legs and against a potentially not so good field. So I think both will earn at least between 800- 1000 points with a bit of upward potential still.

Ohh man, how much more could I enjoy the season, if I just would have listen to my heart instead of my brain...

 

[RedheadDane]

I know we're tied for 88th, but I kinda feel like I should have top(ish)-spot here:

#88	Samu Cuenca	1.978	7.496	26.4%	33	▼ 1	+383
#88	RedheadDane	1.978	7.461	26.5%	33	▲ 2	+474

I have the highest effiency percentage.
I moved up two spots over the course of the last 7 days, while Samu dropped down one spot.
I scored more points in the last 7 days.
And, most importantly, 'R' comes before 'S'.

 

[Shakes]

I know we're tied for 88th, but I kinda feel like I should have top(ish)-spot here:

#88	Samu Cuenca	1.978	7.496	26.4%	33	▼ 1	+383
#88	RedheadDane	1.978	7.461	26.5%	33	▲ 2	+474

I have the highest effiency percentage.
I moved up two spots over the course of the last 7 days, while Samu dropped down one spot.
I scored more points in the last 7 days.
And, most importantly, 'R' comes before 'S'.

Maybe I'm biased against you!

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I have now spent seven uninterrupted weeks ranked between 13th and 21st, for not being at either end of the table and it being early in the season that's bizarrely consistent.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Luke Lamperti got into profit yesterday, which means we all have at least one rider who has got into positive territory. @Avoriaz was the last one to get there, by which time @Wvv had 10 in profit.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Under the radar, Aubin Sparfel looks pretty decent for his first road races this year.

 

[YellowSocks]

I wanted Paris-Camembert. I really wanted it. It was one of my main goals of the season.
In the end, my two planned riders were unplanned.
I’ll have to settle for the Tour de France instead.

 

[skidmark]

Update #11: Punk's Not Dead

It was a big week in cycling, as we're ramping up the cobbled classics towards Holy Week and running the always-underpriced-on-CQ Volta and always-kinda-unpredictable Coppi e Bartali stage races. But the winner on the week was a familiar name from last week's update.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	RestInPunk	859
2	vansteenbergen	760
3	laarsland	719
4	Amis_Velo	676
5	EvansIsTheBest	652

RestInPunk has another great week, leading the pack for a second week in a row. And once again, this is in no small part due to Jasper Philipsen (330 points, 7 teams) and unique pick Dylan Groenewegen (190), with help this week from Stan DeWulf (93, 2) and a handful of 20-40 point scorers. Slotting into 2nd is vansteenbergen - a fitting team name for a classics week - as the owner of Philipsen, Christope Laporte (169, 59) and Per Strand Hagenes (114, 36). laarsland takes third with Laporte/Hagenes/DeWulf, Jenno Brackmoes (66, 6) and a handful of smaller scorers.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	RestInPunk	(+27)
2	laarsland	(+25)
3	vansteenbergen	(+19)
4	Googolplex	(+18)
5	manafana	(+12)
5	escartin	(+12)

The podium here is the same, with laarsland and vansteenbergen switching places. RestInPunk has now moved up 49 spots over the last two weeks!

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	slow_climber	165
2	Eyeballs Out	107
3	Rufs	101
4	peixotini	100
5	SafeBet	97

RIP's back-to-back weekly wins were their team's only Green Jersey points this year, so they're not quite in the top 5 yet (they're 7th) but it wouldn't be surprising for the Philipsen/Groenewegen duo to score a fair bit more before the cobbles are over. Higher up, Eyeballs Out is the only team in the top 5 overall to score points, gaining 16 to leapfrog 4 teams into 2nd overall.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	slow_climber	4266
2	(+2)	postmanhat	3728
3	(+5)	Eyeballs Out	3699
4	(-2)	Rufs	3634
5	(-)	Shakes	3630
6	(-)	repre	3601
7	(-4)	jsem94	3588
8	(+2)	Sneekes	3546
9	(+3)	karaev	3544
10	(-3)	ingsve	3538

Up top, slow climber increases their team's lead, as Rufs has a rough week and slips a few spots, leaving slow climber with over 500 more points than next closest potsmanhat. Further down, karaev gets back in the top 10 at the expense of peixotini.

This week the calendar is cleared a bit more leading up to the main event, the Ronde! There are a few 1-day French races, Dwars Door as the cobbles appetizer, and GP Mig as the video game bonus round for CQ points for some owners.

spreadsheet link

 

[Avoriaz]

Luke Lamperti got into profit yesterday, which means we all have at least one rider who has got into positive territory. @Avoriaz was the last one to get there, by which time @Wvv had 10 in profit.

Ah, just you watch the floodgates open now…

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

First appearance of my team in an update this season so that's nice. Still too many guys doing nothing on my team though.

 

[RedheadDane]

So, I have a few riders in DDV today.

Can I continue narrowly avoiding last place?

Dwars door Vlaanderen
Asgreen
Bévort
Blume
Changizi
Foldager
Honoré
Kragh
Larsen
Lund
Norsgaard
C. Pedersen
M. Pedersen
Søjberg
Valgren

(Let's see what I've got - so far - for the rest of the week)

Not a Dane in sight for the races Friday. Guess it won't be a good Friday for me...

None so far for GP Indurain, but then again; the whole preliminary startlist is rather empty.

NXT Classic
Foldager
Hellemose
Weis

110th Ronde van Vlaanderen
Kasper Asgreen
William Blume Levy
Mikkel Frølich Honoré
Søren Kragh Andersen
Mathias Sunekær Norsgaard
Casper Philip Østergaard Pedersen
Mads Pedersen
Michael Valgren Hundahl
Albert Withen Philipsen

 

[Squire]

I've broken what has seemed like a long streak of losing positions ever since I was in the top 10 earlier. Up four spots to 23rd with 31st on the week. Helped by Laporte, Hagenes, Buitrago and O'Connor (!).

Can I continue the climbing?

Dwars door Vlaanderen (1.WT3)
ASGREEN Kasper
HAGENES Per Strand
LAPORTE Christophe
ZINGLE Axel
COSNEFROY Benoît
MORGADO António
FOLDAGER Anders
PAGE Hugo

A lot of guys, but it's mainly Hagenes and Morgado who can make a meaningful difference for me. And Hagenes is on a very stacked team with plenty of fast people. It would also be nice if Foldager and Page finally showed something, anything. But I've lost faith for the time being. Asgreen has looked kinda decent, but isn't scoring.

Route Adélie de Vitré (1.1)
I keep having nobody in these farmy French races, which is very unlike me in this game.

NXT Classic (1.1)
DOCKX Aaron
REMIJN Senna
KOCKELMANN Mathieu
FOLDAGER Anders

This is actually a bit of an exciting lineup. My Alpecin kids are finally in a race where they're not overwhelmed. Only problem is that all of my riders have a big and strong leader on their team. It's usually a good race though, so will be fun to follow my riders here.

GP Big Mig (1.Pro)
WIDAR Jarno

No startlist yet, only a few riders named. But judging by the Itzulia startlist, I am unlikely to have many more than Widar here.

Ronde van Vlaanderen (1.WT1)
MORGADO António
ASGREEN Kasper
WITHEN PHILIPSEN Albert
HAGENES Per Strand
LAPORTE Christophe
PAGE Hugo

The Pog show, so not much to hope for here. Maybe some Visma points. I doubt AWP will actually end up doing the race, as he will not have raced since the DNF in Koksijde.