slcbob

Hey! Who invited you to my pity party? That's my schtick!

I think that's the most emoticons I've thrown into a string but the pretty well waltz through my stages of grief.

Creatre looking strong at the top of the board. If anyone else makes a big move today, we can be pretty certain they've hacked the Velogames system and are e-juicing.

DXchulo

I can't remember the last time I rooted so hard for the breakaway to make it to the finish.

Creatre

Froome cracking is starting to narrow my lead. Praying I can hold it out til the end!

DXchulo

Froome is killing me at Rouleur Derby. I figured he was a lock to make the podium and I put a pretty big bet on that.

Last night I made a huge bet on Rodriguez to win. The odds were terrible, but I want to win something. Now watch Contador come back on Bola del Mundo.

Kind of Blued

The only way I see the people anywhere near you catching up (me, SkyWalkerz, Scansorial) is if Anton, Moreno, and/or De Gendt win some stages for us, to make up for the Degenkolb points, because we all have Froome too. So unless that happens, I think you're pretty safe, at least in the BF league. Henao has really been a disappointment for most of us too though.

DXchulo

I'd like to offer Rodriguez a public apology for my actions.

slcbob

Ouch!

Lots of temptation in the biggest little city in the world. Who are you picking for Worlds?

Creatre

Hahaha.

Creatre

Swifty/Bennati finish today could narrow my league! Going to be close going into the final days I bet!

Kind of Blued

Woooooah, you were more correct than I thought you'd be. Only 85 points separating the top three. Moreno's 260 points for fifth place may put me over the top? As a numbers nerd, I'll calculate the best possible team once this is over, because it's always fun to make yourself feel stupid in hindsight.

Creatre

Super nervous for final results postings! I think with Degenkolb winning again I should be OK though!

Kind of Blued

GAH! You going 1-2 with Degenkolb and Viviani well outscored my 5th place Moreno points. Congrats!

Racing is pretty much over now after the Worlds, just in time to hear everyone babble on and on about American football. Time to go ride base in the basement...

Creatre

Close one guys, but These Guys Eat Oreos pulled it off again. Back to back Vuelta wins! Had two weeklings in Boom and Ballan, but Degenkolb and Viviani separated me from most of the rest of the group. See you guys for the Giro next year!

DXchulo

That was the closest race of the year for the BF league. I'll settle for 3rd place after a terrible showing at the TDF. It wasn't a bad year overall- 1st in the Giro and 3rd in the Vuelta.

Congrats, Creatre. I think you take the title of the overall BF fantasy champ of 2012.

Kind of Blued

As mentioned, numbers nerd... I don't remember which category each rider was placed in, so I don't know if this team would be legal, but this would be the highest scoring team possible assuming I got the "unclassified" guys correctly classified as "unclassified".

All-Rounder 1: Contador
All-Rounder 2: Valverde
Climber 1: Purito
Climber 2: Moreno
Sprinter: Degenkolb
Unclassified 1: Intxausti
Unclassified 2: Clarke
Unclassified 3: Ten Dam
Wild Card: Bennati

Those guys scored 11,694 points. The best team I could come up with including Froome only gets you to 11,560. Either team would have won VeloGames outright by over 500 points.

FUN FACTS.

slcbob

Intxausti and Ten Dam were class'd as climbers, so back to the drawing board. I'm still tinkering a bit myself and haven't nailed it yet.

Who'd a thunk that Valverde would score more points than a victorious Contador? Or, perhaps even more surprising, that Gesink would not have been a pick full of disappointment, yet again.

slcbob

This is a legal team with the high scorers in each of the categories and Bennati filling in as the wild card, best of the rest within the salary cap. I'm not sure if it would be possible to skimp somwhere to grab the 2 or 4 points more needed to upgrade Bennati to Gesink or Froome and net out better. They scored better than him but cost too much without cutting elsewhere.

[TABLE="width: 224"]
[TR]
[TD]Contador[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]24[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2052[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Valverde[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]14[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2344[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rodriguez[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]18[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2359[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Moreno[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1107[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Degenholb[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1066[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Clarke[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]659[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Talansky[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]617[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Viviani[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]507[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Bennati[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]12[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]720[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]98[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11431[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

slcbob

Replace Intxausti (score 732, cost 6) for Bennati in the wild card of the team above. Scores 11443 for a team costing 92 points. I think that's the best possible.

The highest scorers not on that team, due to salary cap, are Gesink (881) and Froome (1389). It looks like you you would lose more points downgrading Moreno, Degenkolb, or Talansky to the next best cheaper guy(s) (2 or 4 velobuck$ needed, respectively) than you would gain from the upgrade to the better wildcard.

Kind of Blued

Thanks for doing that. It's always interesting in hindsight. Also kind of crazy that a 92 point team is better than any possible 100 point team...

slcbob

OK, I think I've got this out of my system now. Here's a slightly better combo. 15 seconds of fame for Tomasz Marczynski.

[TABLE="width: 215"]
[TR]
[TD]Contador[/TD]
[TD]24[/TD]
[TD]2052[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Valverde[/TD]
[TD]14[/TD]
[TD]2344[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rodriguez[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]2359[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Intxausti[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]732[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Degenkolb
[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]1066[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Clarke[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]659[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Marczynski[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]411[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Viviani[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]507[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Froome[/TD]
[TD]18[/TD]
[TD]1389[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]100[/TD]
[TD]11519[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]