diphthong

so it's that time....7 weeks later than usual. the tour de france is upon us. the usual fantasy cycling vehicle is not available for the tdf. it would appear that

the powers that be issued a cease and desist letter to all of the previous tdf fantasy leagues so we are just left with the one site.


https://fantasy.letour.fr/#/welcome


still interesting. riders will be available soon so you'll be able to assemble teams soon enough. the rules are a little different...it appears there is more of

an emphasis of stage by stage points available except for the last stage #21 . as i read it, last stage (#21 ) points are multiplied by 5 for the final finisher(s) in each category

(overall gc, green jersey, kom jersey...). you must select a single "road captain," whose points will be doubled for every stage finish/standing and the various jersey standings

if applicable. road captain's points will be multiplied x 5 if they finish stage 21 in a qualifying position in any one or more categories. those points will not then be doubled as well.

theoretically, you have the ability to make roster changes here and there but it will cost you credits and potentially weaken your

original team. please read the rules thoroughly. it will take 2-3 minutes. end of race points effectively multiplied on the last stage standings as per previous fantasy offerings.


league name: bike forums

password: FNMLT


personally, i'm of the pick it and stick with it approach to a team but we conceivably have the ability to enact "transfers." predisposed to play it closer to real life and not accept changes.

if a rider crashes out/dnf/dns, the team doesn't replace the missing rider. i'm of the same mindset. anyone willing to participate...vote your opinion here on or before the 28th of august.

transfers/changes...yes or no? if a majority want to do transfers/changes, then okay, we'll do them. otherwise, we go with the original choices and ZERO changes throughout the entirety of the game.

i'm voting no changes. oh...and no extra credits for inviting friends. not interested in a ponzi scheme...fantasy or otherwise.

USAZorro

I'm down with the "no changes" rule - however (and I'm not sure this is possible or not), if the captain crashes out in the first 2 or 3 stages, allowing one change to maintain interest wouldn't be something I would object to.

one4smoke

My vote is for NO changes. Probably will bite me in the ass ...but, oh well.

diphthong

riders are now posted with additions/deletions sure to follow.

i'm definitely okay with changing the captain in the event of a dns/dnf/suspension/etc...in the race, if bernal were to abandon, the ds would then
select sivakov or carpaz as the protected rider from the point of bernal's abandon. what i wouldn't be okay with is changing the captain just because the
next stage is a sprint stage vs a mountain stage. so i'll say select your captain and we'll only allow a team to change captains in the event the selected captain
does not continue in the race for whatever reason.

there are no "assist" points awarded but there are more points awarded for daily stage placings...all the way up to finishing 100th on that day's stage so that should be
a wash.

i think one year, i finished with 3 riders (out of 9) on the fantasy tdf team. that woulda been a few changes to the captain for sure.

diphthong

our boy george with velogames.com is teasing an upcoming game to be released tomorrow-wednesday. looks like he may have found a workaround to the cease and desist for his tdf game.
if velogames.com (the usual fantasy vehicle) does indeed come up with a viable tdf game, we can rock that one as well. we'll know soon enough.

str8jakett

Also good with no changes. Takes some stress out of it .

dstrong 

I'm easy with no changes or team captain change should misfortune befall the leader.

diphthong

our boy george did indeed come up with a workaround...called the "great big bike game (gbbg)." nice. so now it looks like we'll *sorry, meant i'll* have two simultaneous chances to
finish as the lanterne rouge. play one game or both! so recapping: the first tdf game posted...

#1
https://flobikes.fantasybytissot.com/#/welcome
league name: bike forums
league code/password: FNMLT
the first game-i'll call it tdf tissot-has you select 8 riders with some diversification and select a road captain-whose daily stage points will be doubled. no assist or breakaway points.
daily stage scoring goes all the way to the rider finishing 100th. there are daily sprint and mountain points awarded. there are final standings points awarded.
no changes/transfers except in the case your selected captain does not start a stage...then select one of your other riders as the new captain.
when you set up your team, it has you enter your time zone (mine is america-los angeles). my personalized deadline shows on this game as 4:00am on saturday, august 29th.
it's on the "my team" tab, highlighted in a red bar close to the top of the page.

#2
https://www.velogames.com/great-big-bike-game/2020/
league name: bike forums
league code/password: 907776411
the second tdf game-the style most of us at bike forums are used to...i'll call it tdf gbbg-has you select 9 riders with some diversification. there are assist and breakaway points
but the daily stage scoring stops with the rider finishing 20th. there are daily sprint and mountain points awarded. there are final standings points awarded
deadline is 13:45 cest on saturday, august 29th.

in case of race cancellation, the winner(s) for bragging/strutting purposes will be the ds/team in the lead after all points are awarded/games are concluded.

dstrong 

In on both...subject to change. Not sure if I set both teams up with as many similar riders as possible or go with completely different strategies for each. I suppose if I really wanted to invest the time, I'd figure out how my choices would play into the rules of each game...but I've already spent more time than I wanted to just typing this...so I'll just go with what I've got!

Flip Flop Rider

so no changes other than team captain? or no period?

diphthong

game #2-tdf gbbg-doesn't permit any changes once past the deadline for stage one.

game #1-tdf tissot-definitely no transfers...only changes we'll go with is if your preselected captain at the start of the tour is unable to start a stage
for any reason (dns/dnf/dq/misses time cutoff/suspension/pulls a rohan dennis/etc). in that case, select one of your other existing riders as your new
captain who will remain as the captain until the conclusion of the race or until they are unable to start a stage. crashes, abandonments, etc happen.
just as a team would have to go to a plan "b" or even plan "c" if merckx crashed out or hinault missed the time cut, so shall we be able to anoint a new captain
in like circumstances.

example: your captain crashes heavily on stage 14 but makes it to the finish line and is uncertain to start stage 15. he is not actually declared out of the race
because he wants to give it a try on stage 15 to see how he feels. he starts stage 15 but abandons the race after an hour. you can't make a change to your
captain until the window where stage 15 is over and before stage 16 starts.

Flip Flop Rider

sounds good!

diphthong

1.5 days left to register for either (or both) tdf game(s)!!

diphthong

feeling better about both teams than usual. means i'll finish farther off the tdf podium as per my historical performances...and that's saying something.

dstrong 

I truly don't know what I'm doing...just a bunch of names on a screen...if my finishing position is anything like 2020, it should be lantern rouge for me!

slcbob

I came back from the wilderness late yesterday and created a very impressive Great Big Bunch of Guys. Viva Velogames. Game on.

I'll look at the other one and see what excuses I can come up with.

diphthong

glad y’all made it in for one or both games. some interesting teams assembled. should be a three-week hoot.

given how this year has gone, did we really except anything other than a comedy of errors on stage one? really hoping no one is seriously hurt from crashfest 2020.

2cam16

That was choc-full of spills! Even the Canyon car had a part in it! Crazy.

slcbob

Slotted in nicely to the jump seat in the broom wagon of the Tissot league. Will I stay back there? Or will someone know the shame of slipping through the team cars and spitting out the back behind Sivakov and eventually me?

slcbob

I did a lot of waffling around Ahlaphilippe, Buchmann, and Podacar, relatively speaking, in the short time I was whipping through and making my pics. I still almost can't believe I wound up with the Movistar cast-off duo of Landa and Quintana, but c'est la guerre. I rolled the dice with unreliable vintage Latin blood rather than up and coming Visigoths or whatever they are. I almost feel that, if Menchov, Rasmussen, and Talansky were available, I would have picked them. I can't believe I resisted the pull of Zakarin.

I was bummed to see WVA categorized as a sprinter. The set up of pick only 2: Sagan, WVA, Bennett was a tough pill to swallow. Oh well, we were all in that boat. Let's see how that plays out. Not a great day today for WVA, but say it with me: "it's a long way to Paris."

I chuckled to see that my worthy opponent / frenemy ooga-booga and I both wound up with Bauke Mollema, the man that was named under water, in our teams. Sagan and WVA is totally understandable, but Bauke? Great minds think alike. Or, as my old Irish drinking pal Aine Joyce used to say on her third or eighth tequila, fools seldom differ.

Slainte. And happy Touring.

dstrong 

I have no idea how I did it but I really buggered up my Tissot entry...to the point that I don't think I'm even in it? Somehow I have a team with a value of 119...and now when I try to remove someone to get down to 100, it tells me I'm going to be penalized 400 points. Sheesh...maybe just the one game for me.

diphthong

the tdf tissot game had a maximum point total of 120 points to select all your riders so you don't need to change anything. the tdf gbbg game is/was the usual 100 points for the team.

diphthong

gilbert, valls and degenkolb out and i wouldn't be surprised if another rider or two dns for sunday's stage two. weather looks to be improved tho for stage two in the same area.

diphthong

i'll go with your olde irish drinking pal's analysis of the situation. couldn't pass on mollema as an 8-pointer. there was a bit of disparity between the two games regarding rider valuations.
many were nearly the same, some within a few points and then there were a few like uran, mollema, ewan...that were more affordable in one game. tried to fit ewan into the tdf gbbg game
but couldn't at the expense of sagan and wout. tried to fit uran in but thought the boring steadiness of mollema would ultimately be worth more. with this year's route, i see a buncha classics
styled finishes vs the flatski drag-race ones. ewan will likely win 2-4 stages and finish with 1,000-1,200 points but i like sagan's chances to not only get the green jersey points daily/final tally
but to end up anywhere from 1st-12th in approx 9-10 stages and finish with 1,600 points. that's a lotta points. same reason i chose alaphilippe and valverde and gva and wout...i was looking
for guys that could legitimately compete for substantial placings in 7+ stages. how does all of this actually translate? last place/lanterne rouge...in both leagues.

diphthong

aaand it's that time again for horrible predictions...stage two...alaphilippe.