tour de france 2022-fantasyland!
 

yes!! it's that time, yet again, for the tour de france (2022 edition) of fantasyland!

deadline is 15:45 cest (central european summer time) on friday, july 1st 2022. that is 14:45 in the uk, 09:45 on us east coast and waay too early on the us west coast...just submit your extensively researched...er...best guesses the night before to avoid missing out. as always, to be considered for the extensive and lavish podium no-prizes, competitors must join the little bike forums league before the start of tdf stage 3.

there is a new wrinkle to the standard format we've used for years called "stage hunter" that looks like it will be included/available after the first rest day/stage 3. please read through the 10 tweets on the upper right side of the velogame page for more details. this will be available for all participants and allow you a chance to modify your team after stage 3 if you so choose. as i understand it, any of the new additions will only qualify for the stage points-not any end of tour or daily classifications points. replacing an abandoned rider would be a given but difficult decisions await for those thinking of replacing underperforming riders for stages 4-21. these new "stage hunter" rules are (currently) only visible in the tweets area and not enumerated under the main, dropdown rules part of the page. it might be a little funky for this first edition and hopefully no one will be able to get away with swapping in the likely tdf winner just before stage 21 to garner those end-of-tour 600 points but we'll find out.

https://www.velogames.com

league name: bike forums
league code: 539488111

Thank God there are finally more tangible reasons to second guess my poor decisions.

I'm not sure I can participate this year. I'll need at least 140 points to put together a competitive team.

Made it in. :beer:

heard. my dream team came in at 132 points.

I have not yet begun to perseverate! But I am in with v0.00001, including Froome at 8 points and a Slovenian but not one of those two.

was happy with the first edition of the team which included sam bennett and alaphilippe but unhappy with all the subsequent editions minus those two riders. grrr.

in consideration: pogacar, schachmann, wout, mvdp, sagan, coquard, vlasov, felix da haus cat, yatesie, gthom (gasp!), bardet, ganna, pidcock, mohoric, vingegaard, mas, gbennett, soler, mollema, mezgec, stuyven, laporte, the friendly ghost, van baarle, kung, seppuku, kamna, woods, uran, pinot, kristoff, cort and caruso. oh...and kron.

To Pidcock or not to Pidcock is a vexing question. The less Ineosy, more Grenadiery team is an opaque beast to me for choosing how to engage it.

Though it's not as if J-V has laser like clarity in their ambition. Other than to win it all, which they just might if the Pog stumbles.

i like the semi-leaderless ineos squad as they did well with some stage wins a few years back when bernal went down.
dani martinez and yatesie are fully capable en las montañas, tpiddy + dvb good on the classic-styled stages and ganna is a beast on the TT's.
gthom is the 14-point question...is he the guy capable of placing high up in the TT's, maintaining it day to day and minimizing losses/inflicting pain
in the alps/pyrenees or is he done/gonna crash out again?

Well I’m I. For my first try. Not holding out much hope but nothing ventured.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b88efe1591.png

Shad! You're leaving 6 credits on the table? If you don't want them, can I have 'em?

Shadco props for the Americans! I slipped in vermaeke.

Yates? I'd rather pick Froome tbh (I chose neither).

Had to say yes to Wout, Sagan.

I'm outraged over Herman's non selection, but I think Goosens was a good deal -- so he's in.

I think that skinny Norwegian Dane -- Dane you fool takes the cake - Pog at 26!? No way. But he'll probably pickup a couple stages and the GC :lol:

Maybe I should put in senechal for the guaranteed camera drafting! Vivé trícoloúr (or something!)

ooga-booga I just checked and they're still using water bottles here so I got cold feet with the Welshman.

I got Ganna and Martinez. As for JV I think benoot, Laporte, hooydonk signal it's green jersey time!

I don’t know what I’m doing but might I need them later?

I may have the Lanterne Rouge in there somewhere.

.

I made a change and dropped a rider I really would have taken under other circumstances. Just got bad vibes. I'll be more transparent after the Tour starts.

how long does the tt winner on stage one carry the yellow jersey? can they carry it all the way to the start of stage 7? stage 6 looks kinda choppy. if tadej or one of the leading jv bois wins it, do they let it go?

another concerning news cycle... a couple more changes. sheesh

starts tomorrow! get in today!

Just catching up on some of the latest news and wow, covid could really cause havoc this year. Gotta wonder how close Trentin has been to Pogacar over the last few days...and I got concerned about the whole JV squad after they pulled out of TdS.

On a side note...what's happened with Steephill? That used to be my go to source for news, rosters and routes but the TdF page's last news update was back in October. Is the google the best place to find the most current news?

Mostly happy with my roster at the moment...I've got Pogacar in the line-up and two JV riders but one of them isn't Roglic. I couldn't figure out a way to get both MVDP and WVA on the team, so tossed a coin while tracking WVA's knee injury status.

I guess I'll try to devote enough time and attention to the Stage Hunter options...replacing a withdrawn rider makes total sense and then I'll figure it out from there.

Good luck everyone!

In theory, I re-evaluated my team and made some strategic decisions and tough choices to optimize my scoring.

In practice, I waffled indecisively between several competing priorities without ever making a rational commitment to an optimized path, and finally tapped out.

I'm in. Sans Froomey. And some other far more questionable choices.

Happy fantasy racing, everyone.

this is, by far, my least fave gt. that said, rocking riders i'd never ever considered before. we'll see. probably shuffled through 50 potential teams and ditched most of my fave riders in the process.
likely destined for the broom wagon for the karma, or lack of, involved. and yes...even considered the dead to me little louis m...desperate but not serious. adam ant wuz right.

1st cut had Wout and Haig on the squad... Neither are rolling out today on team Marginal Losses.

Ahhhhh...safe and secure in the middle of the pack at #8!

What tough conditions for that course but thankfully most stayed upright and live to fight another day.

Fastest American against the clock today? Brandon McNulty at +43". Well done!

it would appear that slcbob is actually awake for the start of the french eclair…er…affair.