Recent comments

this guy actually just made 4 million dollars off these on a US tv show, the Shark Tank. And these are for eastern nations that wear facemasks a lot...SARs, etc etc. Huge market and he's making tons of money. No april fools here

To Dave
Will the budget be reset back to 175 after Liege and therefore before the giro start and beginning of the new competition for the new bike?
Thanks
Davey

I keep hearing this, but then it also applies to Belgium, Holland and northern France, and they manage to have interesting races and sportives (Paris-Roubaix challenge debacle aside.) And Britain has much bigger hills than those regions. Has anyone been watching the Vuelta al País Vasco this week? That is a great race, ten thousand times more interesting than any Tour of Britain since it came back in 2004, held on roads that are not too dissimilar to many in the Yorkshire Dales or Welsh mountains. We could easily find routes for either a tough one-day classic worthy of Boonen and Cancellara, or a one-week early season tour capable of attracting Contador and the Schlecks. Of all the things holding back cycling as a sport in this country, landscape isn't one of them.

What, it just displays the length on a screen? Doesn't it tweet your measurements, sync with your Garmin, and update your Facebook wall as well? And the price - only 50 quid - I want to spend at least a three-figure sum, otherwise what is there to brag about. Lame.

let's also not forget, whilst we're discussing this, that it'll be entirely irrelevant for most of the season: during the three grand tours (that's 63 game stages out of 89) you'll only get an evening and a morning to make your changes, and you're more or less guaranteed to know who's starting. the same is also true, to a lesser extent, of the Daupiné / Tour de Suisse section of the game, although there's a couple of fun days in the middle where both races are running.

Our main reason for changing the transfer system is to make the game easier to play. currently the transfer system is a bit difficult to follow, we're going to make it easier by using the same system that you do to pick your team. An offshoot of that is that we can make it possible to fiddle with your transfers, which we think will add interest to the game without dumbing it down. Yes, it's bad luck if a rider pulls out, but you're using your cycling knowledge and game skill to select a replacement. we think that having the skill element is better than having the luck element.

so long as the rules are the same for everyone and everyone understands them, it's always a level playing field surely? at least in terms of the game. some people will have more time to throw at it than others, not a lot we can do about that.

C2W = middle class tax break, those on minimum wage can not take up C2W, when I was made redundant from halfords the guys i left behind selling boardmans etc to C2W customers could themselves not sign up to the scheme, being on min wage, despite the benefits it would have brought to them Food for thought. In my experience most of the bikes bought on the scheme will never be ridden to work I lost count of the number of times I put C2W bikes into the back of upmarket motors, not to mention the dodgy geezers sent packing, trying to buy sat nav for the motor and kid's bikes for xmas with C2W vouchers they did not seem bothered that they were trying to involve me in tax fraud.

I understand this, I'm not saying to limit or not to limit the deadline tho

I'm just saying, do go making it so easy by having a "reset" button, You should be free to choose when you want to change your team up until the deadline, either way you do it early or late then you have to stick by your decision's and shouldn't get a way out of your choice

If your going to put a reset for those who pick to early, they why not just put in a half race change where if your rider is way behind or crashed out, you can switch them

What i mean is, make it a level playing field like it is just now and dont go benefiting anyone

@Sanderville - you do seem to be recommending that sad cases with no life outside the fantasy game should be rewarded, so I think I don't understand your message. Playing it properly should be picking the team you think will give the best chance of winning things, shouldn't it? Not obsessively checking the start list and latest withdrawals on race mornings and making sure you have a full squad.

@Gkam84 - most fantasy games I've seen limit transfers-per-season not transfers-per-round (for example, http://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/terms-and-conditions) which I guess reduces the benefit of late-picking each round.

Have to agree with this, if you dont have time then make the changes you want and stick with it

I dont have huge amounts of time because i'm a very busy person just now, but i make changes when i can or leave it to the last min if i can fit it in on many other fantasy things

But if you do it on a monday and someone pulls out just before the race, well thats life as with any sport, look at last night with Spurs, Lennon pulled out minutes before kick off

Do go changing to much with the game, there could be a couple of things tweaked and sorted before the grand tours begin, but dont make it easy for us

Firstly I'm not recommending that everyone actually make their changes on race day, I was trying to say that if you're sad enough to do it then that should be your only option.

Every fantasy sport management game has deadlines and the danger that some of the players you choose won't be picked by their real-life manager on the day.

What spoils the fun is when people want the game dummed-down to a level that's convenient for them because they don't have the time or inclination to play it properly. Let the rest of us get on with it and live with the fact that during this long season there will be weeks when you forget to change your team and there'll be weeks when half your team go sick. You win some, you lose some.

Let's not start awarding points to riders who don't ride, otherwise we'll all have the same cheap domestics for the rest of the season.

This. With closed roads, this could be brilliant - not the Etape or Marmotte in terms of challenge, but why try to compete with them on their terms? The UK can't match the Alps, Pyrenees or Dolomites, so seems like a good idea to go for a different flavour.

My main concern would be that it would be far too crowded, but I suspect the 30,000 number is massively optimistic.

9 miles?! I'd have lost patience long before that....