"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Fantasy Cycling 2004

This was discussed in the Road Cycling forum but I wanted to get some sense as to the interest in participating in fantasy cycling. I'm willing to run the thing. Here's the format:

Everyone picks 10 riders who they'll have throughout the year.

Before the racing season begins I'll choose 10 races. These will be one day races only.

Before every race you choose 5 riders.

Points are accumulated by where your riders finished. For example, if your 5 riders finished 1,2,3,4, 5 you'd have 15 points. The person with the least points wins the weekend. I've yet to figure out what to do with riders who don't finish.

Anyway, if enough people are interested, we'll do it. If not, oh well.

but cyclists seem to love pulling off the road instead of going for a top 30 finish :( it would be all about consistancy and getting top 5 finishes wouldnt matter.

Well first you need to choose riders who will be doing most or all of the races. You also need to choose riders who consistantly finish races. Bettini and Rebelin type of guys.

Since this has nothing to do with Jan, Lance or Tyler or the TDF, I don't know that many people will take an interest in this.

I'm up for it.

We can have some kind of deadline for posting our top ten riders before Milan San Remo. I still think we should go into each race with our ten riders, then pick the 5 best finishers out of our ten after the race to count for points. I guess I really only think this because that's how most of the other fantasy game do it. But either way, pick before or after I'll play. Adding bonus points for having the winner of a race and for carrying the worldcup jersey in your ten would of course be nice. Let's see, start with Bettini, Petegem, Basso, DiLuca, Dekker, Zabel, Rebellin, Laurent Jalabert(oh, he's retired, doh!), Boogerd, Bartoli, Casagrande. Those aren't my ten! Just thinking out loud. Notice no Hincapie or Hamilton or Bortolami or that Latvian rider with the bad attitude. Hard to fit them all in!

Thanks, Laggard. This could be alot of fun.

Excellent idea, Laggard. Makes following the one-day races more fun. Count me in.

So, should every participant maintain the same 10 riders through the year? Or should participants be allowed to choose 10 riders before each race?

How's this sound for races?

Het Volk
Milan San Remo
Tour of Flanders
Gent-Wevelgem
Paris - Roubaix
Liège - Bastogne - Liege
Amstel Gold Race
Championship of Zurich
Paris-Tours
Tour of Lombardi
World RR

Sounds like a good mix of races.
So, everyone picks Bettini right?

Marty

This is Laggard's baby so since he is being good enough to coordinate it, I will of course defer to his preference, but I thought we would be picking ten riders that would be our "Classics Team" for the entire year, then each race, we would count 5 riders from our "Team of Ten" we picked at year's beginning. Laggard proposed we pick the five before each race, but most fantasy games allow you to pick your riders to count for points after the race to make it more fun and give you the highest number of points. But your Team of Ten is set throughout the year and has to be picked before the start of the first classic, Milan-San Remo. :)

I like your idea, Don. I'd like to be able to come up with some bonus based on UCI rankings. Like a bonus for having a high-placed rider who's UCI ranking is higher than 50th.

How is the points system going to work? Is it like a suggested? i.e. A 3rd place finish equals 3 points and the person with the lowest points wins the race?

After further thought, we'll simply award points based on the same points that the UCI awards for each place down to 50th. If one of your riders finishes 2nd you'll get the 150 UCI points.

In the next month I'll be putting up a simple web page explaining how this will work.

February 28 Het Volk
March 20 Milan-San Remo
April 4 Tour of Flanders
April 7 Ghent-Wevelgem
April 11 Paris-Roubaix
April 18 Amstel Gold Race
April 21 Fleche Wallone
April 25 Liege-Bastogne-Liege
August 1 HEW Cyclassics
August 7 San Sebastian Classic
August 14 Championship of Zurich
October 3 World Championship
October 10 Paris-Tours
October 16 Tour of Lombardy

!4 good races. Glad to see the old time classics included like Het Volk and Ghent even though they're not world cup.

I'll play too. Guess I'll keep Eurosport.com bookmarkedas OLN is becoming more and more GT fixated. They're still alot better than before but I can always want more.

Are we drafting or is it OK for multiple players to pick the same rider? As Marty proclaimed Bettini will be popular.

I'll keep my eyes open for the web page. Btw it'll be nice to avoid the LA/Ullrich crossfire as neither is likely to make many of these "teams."

I would do it for sure....would you have a set budget and be able to trade riders like other fantasy sports ??

Omloop Het Volk!

Well done Laggard. I'm in.

I hadn't planned on allowing trades. If I do there will be no money or budget allowed. It will simply be a matter of you working out a trade with another team and notifying me.

Anyway. Here's the link:

http://www.panderzinedistro.com/cycling

Grazie mille, Laggard! Thanks for putting that site up and your efforts administrating the competition. Will start researching my ten price fighters asap.

Count me in.

El bumpo!

I don't know enough about most riders to make good picks, but I do know fantasy in and out since I do it for a living. Below are my thoughts on the everything mentioned so far, all of it meant as constructive criticism.

For scoring, I think the UCI points are good, they've already scaled them to reflect importance of a 1st place finish relative to other ranks. As for picking the same ten for the whole season, this is usually only done in leagues where there is a draft. Most challenge type games, which this feels like, allow users to pick their team before each race, usually day before or early morning day of. I would suggest against picking 10 riders and letting the user pick which 5 are scored, as it takes some of the strategy out of picking winners before the results. I know it would be extra work for you, but salary cap might work well in this situation, it prevents people from picking the top 5 riders every race and having similar scores, if you can only afford one stud, the other four riders become so much more important. I can help you with a formula to calculate salaries if you want.

Hope you don't mind the suggestions, just wanted to share some thoughts on this. No matter what the rules, I'm in if you'll have me.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna stay away from the draft or any type of bids as it's just more work than I have time to do and I just finished a grueling fantasy football season.

I will take one idea into consideration and ask that all participants please vote for one of the following ideas:

1. Of the 10 riders you've picked for the entire season, you pick 5 of them BEFORE every race. Your score is then determined by the placing of these riders.

2. You enter all 10 riders and pick your top 5 riders AFTER the race is over.

3. You enter all 10 riders and all 10 riders are eligable to score points for each race.

I like idea 1. As Damianb pointed out, it takes more skill to choose before than after.

Feedback soon, please.

bumpppp

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna stay away from the draft or any type of bids as it's just more work than I have time to do and I just finished a grueling fantasy football season.

I will take one idea into consideration and ask that all participants please vote for one of the following ideas:

1. Of the 10 riders you've picked for the entire season, you pick 5 of them BEFORE every race. Your score is then determined by the placing of these riders.

2. You enter all 10 riders and pick your top 5 riders AFTER the race is over.

3. You enter all 10 riders and all 10 riders are eligable to score points for each race.

I like idea 1. As Damianb pointed out, it takes more skill to choose before than after.

Feedback soon, please.

I'll go with 1. Do we send them to your fantasy site or post them here?

E-mail me your yearly 10 by the 25th of February and I'll post them on the site. Then, before every race e-mail me the 5 that you want to start.

Have received one lineup so far.

Don't be late.

Have received one lineup so far. Don't be late.

The Bruco Squadra is waiting for you! :D

Laggard, are you participating yourself? You probably are. I would like to see your cards...

Just to show my lack of knowledge, is there any good place to get a list of pros and what races tehy are planning to ride this year? Of course past performances of said racers would be nice too, but I'll be happy if I can pick 10 that aren't dead, retired, or banned this year.

You've got 13 days to get your lineup to me. I've only received one so far.

This thing will not happen with only two or three teams.

Thanks.

Just to show my lack of knowledge, is there any good place to get a list of pros and what races tehy are planning to ride this year.

damianb, CyclingNews (http://www.cyclingnews.com/) has more relevant information that you will ever be able to process... ;)

I've only received one so far.

Come on, race addicts, send in your teams! My squadra is eagerly awaiting you. :D

I have never fared well in games like this (shamefully ended 6th out of 9 in last year's TdF poule at work :( ); victory shouldn't be this easy... :p

So far I've gotten lineups from the following true racing fans. :)

CNIB-Valumart presented by girl27
King Rene
Bruco

CNIB-Valumart presented by girl27
King Rene
Bruco

Yup, these are the coaches who are ready for this Saturday: Omloop Het Volk. Good luck, girl27 and King Rene! May the force be with you and may the best rider win.

Don D and Doug have joined us also.

It's a go!

So...are we going with rule # 1......about choosing 5 racers before each race?? And if so...where do we post them??

We've decided to go with all 10 riders for each race. As so many teams will choose the same 5 riders, this should help diversify scores somewhat.

Lineups are posted!

www.panderzinedistro.com/cycling

I dont see them on the site

I dont see them on the site

Check this (http://www.panderzinedistro.com/lineup.htm) out. The link (http://www.panderzinedistro.com/lineup.htm) is at the bottom of the Fantasy Cycling page (http://www.panderzinedistro.com/cycling).

Nice teams, by the way.

Nice teams indeed, Bruco

I applaud the inclusions of Frank Vandenbroucke. I have been waiting for another 1999 Spring campaign from L'enfant terrible but I just didn't have the bottle to sign him up. Let's hope he shines in the Ardennes.

A healthy Bartoli and an angry VDB can only provide us with the best that Fleche and Liege have to offer.

:( No Omloop Het Volk this year...

;) But lots of Geert Omloop in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.


I applaud the inclusions of Frank Vandenbroucke. I have been waiting for another 1999 Spring campaign from L'enfant terrible but I just didn't have the bottle to sign him up.

:D I know what you mean. VDB is undoubtedly a gifted rider (although I would not go as far as to say that 'God Is Back', as can be read on the Flemish roads these days), but too often his talent drives him nuts.

He did make it into the finale, of last Sunday's K-B-K. But I was impressed more by his teammate Cancellara.

Is the Het Volk going to be replaced with another race for us...??

If ya want, I can replace it with K-B-K.

If ya want, I can replace it with K-B-K.

Why not? We're only having fun, right? It was the same cast of characters for the most part, and I think the Boonen and Heeswijk fans would be very happy with the results. I picked neither. :mad:

sounds good.....:)

Why not? We're only having fun, right? It was the same cast of characters for the most part, and I think the Boonen and Heeswijk fans would be very happy with the results. I picked neither. :mad:

Being one of the Boonen/Van Heeswijk poolies... I'm cool with going with K-B-K.

Being one of the Boonen/Van Heeswijk poolies... I'm cool with going with K-B-K.

Yeah, you're cool with it because you are now in the lead. ;)

I'll post the scores tonight.

Scores are up.

www.panderzinedistro.com/cycling

Scores are up.

And they don't look good. :o K-B-K has not been good to me, this year. On the other hand, it was fun to watch it. And my squadra will more than make up in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. :D

I'm heading out of town soon and won't be able to update things until Sunday night.