The 2026 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Kazistuta]

Incredible to be hovering around top15 when none of my rarer riders (bar Tiberi, who has cooled drastically off) is making headwinds. Goes to show how many of the major cq points have been rewarded to the most expensive or the most popular riders in general. More moaning in this thread than usual😉

 

[Netserk]

torres removed from o gran camino

on to the longlist for next year ig

 

[tobydawq]

torres removed from o gran camino

on to the longlist for next year ig

A tempting prospect. First non-DNF in the classics on Sunday.

Albert Torres

Albert Torres (born 1990-04-26 in Ciutadella de Menorca) is a professional road racing cyclist from Spain, currently riding for Movistar Team. His best results are winning a stage in Vuelta Independencia República Dominicana and 2nd place in stage Vuelta Asturias.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Nah, Torres can probably join Staune-Mittet, Halvorsen, Power, Fernández et al on the list of obvious talents who immediately flatlined after turning pro. Perhaps at the very top, given that he was generating the hype as a first-year U23 already.

 

[Netserk]

at least he signed a six year contract after a single phenomenal performance

not exactly desperate to perform here and now

 

[Wvv]

Winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen week is really pleasing. That's what the plan always was with Wout and Remco, scoring big in these races.

However, not having Paul Seixas is going to be a crucial mistake.

 

[Squire]

I think plenty of us thought [Stuyven] was a solid option, but the competition in his price range was insane on paper. Had he been available at this price and off the back of the QS transfer last year, when the options between 250 and 400 were nonexistent, he would probably have been picked like 10-15 times.

Yep, it was clear and obvious for us that the vastly superior David Gaudu was the way to go!

Nah, Torres can probably join Staune-Mittet, Halvorsen, Power, Fernández et al on the list of obvious talents who immediately flatlined after turning pro. Perhaps at the very top, given that he was generating the hype as a first-year U23 already.

I'm starting to think the same. The Spanish Camilo Ardila (but maybe with good knees). I've been a bit skeptical about Torres as a future star ever since he got famous, as seen by the CQ game reveal discussion in 2025:

The Arrieta season is definitely a danger when it comes to Torres, and he's more of a defensive pick for me than someone I'm confident will explode onto the scene.

Apparently I continued the Arrieta comparison in January this year, where I was even more skeptical:

TORRES ARIAS Pablo 130 (34 picks) - With 34 picks, he seems to have lost a lot of backers since last year. I don't dare to give up quite yet, although I'm still weary of the potential of him just becoming a new Arrieta like someone mentioned in last year's thread. I know, it's a bit crazy to say when he just turned 20 two months ago! Torres has said in an interview that he wants to get more results this year and has worked on his explosivity. Instead of one race where he scores well, maybe this time he can at least do three?

Of course he had to be picked in 2025 regardless of any reservations, because that's just what you do with the seemingly top U23 talents who are cheap enough. Especially given UAE's history with those from the year before. And there are always some that don't work out immediately for whatever reason.

There was a bit more sense in omitting him this year, but traditionally it has often taken a year for talented neo-pros to start delivering, so I don't feel too bad about that 'gamble' still. But the world is changing in that regard, and contrary to the gradual emergence of a young Carlos Rodriguez, for example, Torres had that crazy Finestre performance already which makes his non-breakthrough a bit more obvious.

I might not pick him next year if he scores sub-200 again. While he has looked good sometimes in the Arrieta donkey role on the front of the group, that doesn't lead to any points. And there must be some kind of issue if he's not doing Gran Camino. I doubt they're saving him for Asturias, where he's on the startlist. But I don't know what's been going on with him since the DNF in Faun Drome Classic.

 

[skidmark]

Update #13: A Paul is cast over the CQ game

A thrilling and unpredictable edition of Paris-Roubaix may be the primary memory of this week for cycling fans, but the real CQ points in this game came from the most popular rider in the 2026 edition. Paul Seixas earned 446 points for his 73 owners this week, in a dominant, unbelievable performance for a 19 year old in Itzulia. To make a mark this week, he was a must have, but of course as always it's the right mix of rarer riders that took a team to the top.

This Week's Top Scorers

Rank	Team	Points this week
1	YellowSocks	872
2	LosBrolin	863
3	escartin	833
4	postmanhat	803
5	SafeBet	795

YellowSocks emerges victorious this week, scoring 872 points and earning their team's first points in the Green Jersey competition this year in a big way. Of course, the price of entry was the aforementioned French phenom, but YellowSocks is also one of the 3 owners of Florian Lipowitz (209 points), and one of the 59 owners of the resurgent Christophe Laporte (112 points). Second place and not far behind is LosBrolin, who has the same popular two French riders, and a third rarer French rider in Antoine L'Hote (185, 9) with a breakout performance this week. Third goes to escartin with the same 3 headline riders as LosBrolin but a little less support from lower scoring riders.

This Week's High Movers

Rank	Team	Up/down
1	escartin	(+16)
2	LosBrolin	(+13)
2	YellowSocks	(+13)
4	Qazaqstan	(+10)
4	pman	(+10)
4	Lortnoc	(+10)

The podium is inverted in this one, with escartin moving up the most this week at 16 spots, and LosBrolin and YellowSocks behind at 13.

Green Jersey Competition

Rank	Team	Total
1	slow_climber	165
2	karaev	120
3	SafeBet	119
4	Eyeballs Out	107
5	postmanhat	104

The top spot is still safely with slow climber, and karaev holds onto second, but SafeBet scores 22 points this week to move right up behind in third, and postmanhat scores 26 to leapfrog into the top 5.

Top 10 Overall

Rank	Up/down	Team	Points
1	(-)	slow_climber	5343
2	(+2)	postmanhat	4857
3	(-)	karaev	4786
4	(+1)	Eyeballs Out	4750
5	(-3)	repre	4734
6	(-)	Sneekes	4682
7	(+1)	Nyssinator	4649
8	(+7)	del1962	4573
9	(+5)	ingsve	4550
10	(+6)	vladimir	4542

There's some shakeup in the standings, but slow climber is still above it all, in first by about 500 points. postmanhat jumps onto the podium and karaev stays put, while further down the last three spots in the top 10 are newcomers/returners del1962, ingsve and vladimir. Falling out are manafana, Hugo Koblet, and the Seixas-less Shakes who falls not only out of the top 10 but the top 30!

This week sees the transition from the cobbles to the Ardennes, with Brabantse Pijl mid-week leading into Amstel Gold on Sunday. O Gran Camino serves as our main stage race distraction for the week.

A programming note - I'm off to western Canada to work out in the woods for two months so EvansIsTheBest will be taking over the updates through the end of June. I will have internet so I may be around here and there and probably will provide an update one week when EITB is on vacation, but otherwise have a good spring and I'll see you all around the start of the Tour!

spreadsheet link

 

[will-10]

I don't even have Torres but the rush by some to write off these talents as soon as possible is crazy. Torres is 20

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

I don't even have Torres but the rush by some to write off these talents as soon as possible is crazy. Torres is 20

Right. Even in this era of mega talents going pro early and getting results even earlier than in the past, for every Pogacar or Seixas you have a Vingegaard or Pedersen who take a while to get going.

 

[del1962]

I think this weeks top ten position might be the zenith of my season, I don’t think I have the riders to remain in this rarefied air

 

[YellowSocks]

Really? That’s my name in the Game’s Weekly Bulletin? WOW.

I secretly hoped it would appear one day, either by mistake or thanks to some rule – like a ‘lanterne rouge contest’ – that I wasn’t aware of. And now THIS IS IT!!!

How do I get my prize? Is there a form to fill in somewhere?