Fantasy Directeur Sportif Challenge

Go on then, give it a go...
348.8 points based on the correct values. 29 riders, since there is one neo pro (I think Cattaneo). I've limited myself to a max of 3 per team. It's probably heavy on classic riders and names I know, rather than being strongly based on form, but who knows, it's a long season.

Mark Cavendish, PC, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, 24.3
due a good year, and with a lead out train, who knows what he might achieve.
Tejay van Garderen, AR, BMC Racing Team, 30.7
if cut loose from Evans, last year showed such promise.
Fabian Cancellara, AR, RadioShack-Leopard, 26.6
again due a good year, and I suspect he will be in transition to a more GC type rider
Thomas de Gendt, AR, Vacansoleil-DCM, 25.9
again performed well last year and has the legs to top 10 in any of the GTs
Jens Voigt, PC, RadioShack-Leopard, 20.9
if this is his last year, it will be a cracker
Jon Tiernan-Locke, PC, Sky, 14
after last year's world champs, should love the classics
Andrew Talansky, DS, Garmin-Sharp, 20.1
another strong GC rider last year
Jakob Fuglsang, DS, Astana, 16.4
time to put his money where his mouth is
Thor Hushovd, DS, BMC Racing Team, 11.9
after illness, this may well be a good year
Marcel Kittel, DS, Argos - Shimano, 9.5
sadly I think he'll see a lot of Cav, Sagan and Degenkolb's back wheels, but at minor tours should hopefully clean up
Maxim Iglinsky, DS, Astana, 9.6
hopefully classics and shorter tours
Jeremy Roy, DS, FDJ-BigMat, 14.8
TdF stage hopefully
Gorka Izagirre, DS, Euskaltel-Euskadi, 17.4
shorter tour stage wins (maybe)
Anthony Roux, DS, FDJ-BigMat, 10.3
another TdF stalwart
Nicki Sorensen, DS, Saxo - Tinkoff, 9.1
towing people uphill
Michael Schar, DS, BMC Racing Team, 6.3
shorter tour stage wins (maybe)
Jose Ivan Gutierrez, DS, Movistar, 7.4
road captain
Mikel Astarloza, DS, Euskaltel-Euskadi, 5.9
road captain, and mountain stages
Johnny Hoogerland, DS, Vacansoleil-DCM, 4.5
spotty jersey type
Alex Dowsett, DS, Movistar, 10.5
maybe will have looser reins for breaks
Christophe Riblon, DS, Ag2r-La Mondiale, 5.4
more TdF goodness
Davide Appollonio, DS, Ag2r-La Mondiale, 6.7
DS
Andy Schleck, PC, RadioShack-Leopard, 3
if he doesn't better last year....
Steve Houanard, DS, Ag2r-La Mondiale, 3
DS
Nicolas Roche, KM, Saxo - Tinkoff, 19.1
being towed halfway up a hill...
Laurent Pichon, DS, FDJ-BigMat, 3
DS
Mattia Cattaneo, DS, Lampre - Merida, 3
DS
Xabier Zandio, DS, Sky, 6.5
super DS
Gabriel Rasch, DS, Sky, 3
DS

EDITS -
after being pointed to the blog post I'd missed (thanks)... I've recalculated and found an extra 17 odd points, so Huguet has been swapped for Roche, and after finding Marzano may have, or may be close to retiring I've swapped in Appollonio, who I hope will be able to thrive outside Sky.

I'm just looking to see if I can set up my purist team with these riders...

Just one point on your team Rob, Sky have a classics vs tour set up. JTL is not in the classics, but Rasch is

Good team but a major problem I should have mentioned, because the current TdU prices are reflective of just that race they're not really suitable for the whole season.

Take a look at the link at the end of my blog post here for prices to use http://road.cc/content/blog/74271-big-unveil

I'll also amend the first post to clarify that.

You'll probably need to rework your team a little.

Hi,
Looks like fun. Is this a 'premium' competition, a 'standard' competition or based on all UCI events (e.g. Tour San Luis is included)

That's a pointed question, if we're doing this for world tour points should we declare appropriate teams from our squad for the TdU, and so on through the year, keeping track of points earned, or is it world tour points howsoever earned by those riders through the year, or are we using the fantasy league to keep track?

So... If we're declaring teams,

for TdU my 7 man team will be Voigt, de Gendt, Iglinsky, Izagirre, Kittel, Gutierrez, Appollonio

For Tour de San Luis Cavendish, Sorenson, Hushovd and Van Garderen are the only riders I can declare.

Tour of Qatar Cavendish, Cancellara, Appollonio, Rasch, Riblon, Kittel, Schar

Mediterraneo Roux, Roy, Pichon, Hushovd, Schleck, Talansky, Roche

Oman Appollonio, Kittel, Schar, Cancellara

bearing in mind this is all fun, and I'm coming stone dead last anyway...

Well here is my team.....and we are using a Megabus to transport riders back to the hotel (times of austerity you know...)
Peter Sagan AR 35.4
Alberto Contador GC 35.2
Mark Cavendish PC 24.3
Andre Greipel PC 23.9
Taylor Phinney AR 22.6
Philippe Gilbert AR 22
Luke Durbridge AR 18.2
Jesse Sergent AR 15.7
Leigh Howard AR 15.3
Kevin Seeldraeyers KM 14.9
Yauheni Hutarovich PC 14.9
Tomasz Marczynski KM 14.5
Gustav Erik Larsson DS 13.5
Alessandro Petacchi DS 13.1
Alex Dowsett DS 10.5
Arnaud Demare DS 10.2
Jacopo Guarnieri DS 9.2
Sylvester Szmyd DS 8.7
Steele von Hoff DS 7.6
Johnny Hoogerland DS 4.5
Zak Dempster DS 3.5
Jurgen van de Walle DS 3
Gabriel Rasch DS 3
Andy Schleck DS 3
Juraj Sagan DS 3

and for the TDU, Ill pick...

Philippe Gilbert (BMC)
AR Value: 25.7 Form: 17.00 In form rider
Luke Durbridge (GRE)
DS Value: 10.1 Form: 6.80
Andre Greipel (LOT)
PC Value: 36.2 Form: 8.00 In form rider
Jesse Sergent (RSN)
DS Value: 4.7 Form: 0.00
Yauheni Hutarovich (ALM)
PC Value: 21.4 Form: 1.00
Tomasz Marczynski (VCD)
DS Value: 15.7 Form: 9.60
Steele von Hoff (GRM)
DS Value: 11.9 Form: 7.00
Zak Dempster (USA)
DS Value: 5.0 Form: 1.40
Arnaud Demare (FDJ)

We are scoring both by fantasy points and UCI points

We hadn't yet decided a full race schedule beyond the fact that me and Drheaton are doing the TDU. We are doing it based round doing the blogs. It will look something like this

Qatar and Oman
PN and TA
classics
Giro
DL and TdS
Tour de France
Vuleta
World Champs and ToB

It may be the case that we score all WT races by UCI points but we hadnt decided that just yet and we have plenty of time till the next WT race

As for declaring teams, that does need to happen, however in most cases your team will pick itself. Only is some of the classics and the GT's is it likely you will have more than 9 riders to choose from

Move over Kurt Arvesen, theres a new ds in town.
Nice start for loopy.

Well said j andrew, whoever you are.

Amazingly I can actually put out a pretty strong 7 man team for the ToQ:

Cavendish
Bouhanni
Cancellara
Kittel
Devolder
Lutsenko
Danny Van Poppel

with Betancurt and Baguil as filler to get a legal team.

http://fantasy.road.cc/viewuser?uid=9348

WAIT WAIT WAIT.....Qatar is not totally complete yet. Final roster tomorrow hopefully

I have you down as 5 riders, no van poppel or kittel from your riders there, both are reserves and unlikely to ride

Booo!

And the Hugh Lupus team is likely to be...

Mark Cavendish (OPQ)
Leigh Howard (GRE)
Yauheni Hutarovich (ALM)
Jacopo Guarnieri (AST)
Gabriel Rasch (SKY)
Taylor Phinney (BMC)
Tomasz Marczynski (VCD)
Andy Schleck (RSN)
Zak Dempster (APP)

Just for fun, as DS who would you have entered from your team for races during the season, assuming you were a real World Tour team.
No score limit but keep it real, bearing in mind rider goals and team goals. You also can pick and choose which races you enter from the calendar, so for example with the one day races in mind I've included the Marseille one day, to stretch the legs of those not going to San Luis or Australia. You can also drop races later in the season which are not compulsory for World Tour teams (like San Luis which I nearly dropped). And keep an eye on those air miles, you may not want to fly riders from San Luis to Qatar to the Med to Oman.

For me the team goal is to entertain the spectators, so lots of breaks, lots of combative riding and pleasing the sponsors. Targetted races are the 1 day races and GTs. GT goals will vary but I'd be happy with 1 overall jersey and 1 top 10 GC finish plus say 6-10 GT stages through the year (well I have got Cav). Any more and I'll be hanging out a car window like Marc Madiot

Rider goals - more to be added later after I've 'talked' to the riders. These are hopefully close to the actual rider goals.

Cav in yellow day one and green overall at the TdF.
Cancellara to lose weight and work on beating Gilbert rather than Martin
Voigt to get in every break and have fun
JTL for the Ardennes Classics and the Vuelta
Talansky Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, TdF top 10

race entries

I would have made

TdU - 7 riders:
Gutierrez, Kittel, Appolonio, Tiernan Locke, Schleck, Riblon, Pichon

Tour de San Luis - 6 riders
Hushovd, de Gendt, Fuglsang, Cattaneo, Roy, Iglinsky

GP d'Ouverture La Marseillaise - 8 riders
Roy, Roux, Cancellara, Astarloza, Voigt, Izagirre, Sorenson, Dowsett

Tour of Qatar - 8 riders
Cavendish, Voigt, Kittel, Appolonio, Cancellara, Riblon, Pichon, Sorenson

Tour Mediterraneo - 8 riders
Hushovd, de Gendt, Fuglsang, Cattaneo, Roy, Iglinsky, Roux, Dowsett

rest of February calendar for team.
Tour of Oman - 8 riders
Cancellara, Schar, Appollonio, Kittel, Guttierez, Talansky, Cattaneo, Izagirre

Volta ao Algarve
Hushovd, de Gendt, Fuglsang, Cattaneo, Roy, Iglinsky, Roux, Dowsett

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

After all the changes I'm restricted to 4 guys now, Cavendish, Cancellara, Bouhanni and Devolder. Not the strong team I was hoping for.

My team is Degenkolb, Bewley and Kreder

I will put up mine and Drheaton's scores from the TDU later tonight so you guys can compare

So for the TDU

Drheaton scored 215 fantasy points and 46 UCI World Tour points

I scored 355 fantasy points but just 31 UCI World Tour points

Its going to be interesting through the year to see how much disparity there is between fantasy and world tour points for the world tour races.

The next WT race is Paris-Nice though so its fantasy points all the way for Qatar and Oman!

and for me
TDU fantasy 119, world tour 30pts.

told you, stone dead last

Palmares so far
my team is doing well, in the real world, just not in the fantasy or wt
1st stage of Tour de San Luis(Cav) and 2nd overall(van Garderen)
Tour of Qatar overall win(Cav) and 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th stages
La Marseillaise 4th overall(Roux)
Etoile de Besseges 3rd (Roux) and 4th (Roy) overall, 1st and second on final stage (Roux, Roy)
Tour Mediterraneo 3rd stage 2 (Roux), 5th overall (Roche)
Tour of Oman 1st and second stage 1 (Kittel, Appllonio)
Haut Var Stage 1 (Hushovd)

UPDATE!

http://road.cc/content/blog/76495-and-breathe

Basically, I'm doing ok, currently 6th in the World Tour rankings (on 46 points) after one race but the real tests are to come.

Just had a tot up and on provisional start lists I have 16 of my 27 active riders entered in Paris Nice. Knew I'd picked a good team for something... Top 9 riders take me to 180.6 points though, so...

van Garderen, de Gendt, Talansky
Tiernan Locke, Roche, G Izagirre
Kittel, Astarloza, Gutierrez

Astarloza as captain, Kittel as sprinter and hopefully 6, maybe 7 of the top 10 in GC... Hopefully KoM is in there too.

and the other 7?
Voigt, Fuglsang,M Iglinsky, Roy, Cattaneo, N Sorenson and Zandio.

Too much choice aaaaarrrrggggghhhhh!

Trouble is that leaves me with just 6 riders in Tirreno.

I've got quite a strong squad for PN with 13 riders in total.

GC:
Roche, Westra, Kelderman, Quintana, Talansky

Sprinters:
Bouhanni, Kittel

Classics:
Boonen, Gilbert, Tiernan-Locke

Wildcards:
Barguil, Lutsenko, Cattaneo

So... my team will be:
Roche
Westra
Kelderman
Quintana
Talansky
Bouhanni
Kittel
Tiernan-Locke
Boonen

My quandary is over whether to pick Boonen or not. It's a toss up between him, Gilbert, Barguil and Lutsenko. Barguil/Lutsenko could do something interesting as neo-pro's whereas Boonen/Gilbert are getting ready for the classics. Boonen won a stage last year but I don't see him as being in the same form as last year...

Bah, Boonen it is.

Oh, and for TA I've currently got 9:

Cavendish, Demare, Sammy Sanchez, Jelle Vanendert, Cancellara, Vanmarcke, Nordhaug, Betancurt, Devolder.

Not nearly as strong but not terrible.

Where have you got Talansky from?

Here

He's listed on Cycling Fever and in the game.

I mean being in your team, I don't see him on your blog or in the initial list of your riders you sent me, and he isn't in my spreadhseet

...

aw crap

I'm not entirely sure where I've pulled that from...

Better make it:

Roche
Westra
Kelderman
Quintana
Boonen
Bouhanni
Kittel
Tiernan-Locke
Barguil

then.

Actually, I'm not too upset because I actually really wanted Barguil in there.

One question, how are we doing the classics? Just each race individually?

Yeah, no point trying to force the purist thing on it. Pick a team per classic making whatever changes you want in between.

All good makes it easier in the spreadsheet as I can do a new tab for each race then

Yeah, no poaching, Talansky signed with me this season :-P

Just looking over my spreadsheet, and after an encouraging start, there's a huge hole with the early classics where I just have one or two riders entered per race. Seems like not many of the guys I picked for Classics are doing the early ones.

Then I hit Paris Nice, and Tireno and 22 out of 27 are in there.

Seems I may have misjudged how this part of the year works with the stage races and the one days. Having said that I've never really bothered with any races before April/May time, so it's all learning this year.

Next year, I think I need to review my balance of GC vs sprinters. Kittel, Cav and Appollonio aren't enough to cover the range of races and finishes. GC riders may be better for WT over the year, but my team goals are less aligned with WT points and more crowd pleasing ones and top 20 in GC doesn't float that many boats compared to a Sagan salute.

Maybe need to be haunting the u23 races and continental teams looking for the next fast gun.

Out of interest, thinking ahead to next year (already), how many team do you reckon we'd need to make a workable draft league? ie every rider exists once and can only sign to one team, we have a draft in the off-season then run a squad through the year in a draft league.

I was thinking somewhere between 12 and 24 but without going over the numbers (which I can't as I'm at work at the minute) I don't know how it'd work.

For me this was the hardest part of picking my team, trying to get a balance between the classics, the sprints, the mountains and GC. I think I've done ok so far (thanks to some young GC stars) but I'm not sure I can sustain it through the year and I reckon I might have too many classics guys.

It depends what races on the actual calender you were using, as to what riders you deem valuable. The more races the more teams. But id say possibly 10-12 is about right to make it somewhat competitive. But doing a draft means you wouldn't be credit limited

If it were a proper draft you could credit limit it, if you end up with more than the limit after the draft then you have to release some riders and pick up whoever is free. Either that or do trades. It could be a strategy, don't use of your limit in the draft and see who gets released after.

You could even keep it persistent over years, you get to give 10 riders a three year contract, 10 a two year and the rest one year. Whoever drops out of contract ends up in the following years draft.

Also if we forced the 150 credit limit on each race it would force teams to plan and to pick riders at a variety of price points. That would hopefully encourage planning rather than trying to load up on high value stars. Anyway, the more teams there are the more the high value riders would be spread around. 150 team limit also has the benefit of meaning all scoring can be done in game

Was thinking most fantasy races but maybe doing similar to this year where we do year end rankings based on accumulated World Tour points for your top 12/15 riders. Much easier to work out and covers you in case you don't pick someone in the your squad who goes on to win something.

Just thinking aloud really, it could be fun but don't know how many people would be interested.

I think what you would find then is you are making it too restrictive, for example we've picked teams our teams with no other people picking and I still don't have a full team for P-N, so I think if you tried to employ the 150 credit rule it wouldn't work. By all means a credit limit on the overall to a degree (probably 700 id say, see why further down), as if you look at our teams, we don't have an awful lot of stars, but we do have a fair amount of 3 credit riders, and then when you think 10 teams, thats alot of 3 credit riders gone, without there being much choice.

Your talking very similar to the game I play on PROFSL, basically you have a budget and contracts. So its a bidding draft, which means you can stop as high as you want to go, and contracts can role over 2/3 years spreading cost out etc. So thats where trying to employ other limits when values are already set becomes very difficult. I think if you are using set values and say you couldn't go over 700 credits, so you effectively couldn't go out and have 30 guys of 25 credits it would work anyway as over 10/12 teams you would get a big enough spread of riders that people would think, oh Cancellara has gone (25 credits) your next pick, i want a classic guy who finishes high, so you go Santambrogio (8 credits) so it would all work out anyway

Fair point, there's a balance to be found between having enough teams to ensure that every team isn't full of stars and not so many teams that everyone is limited to having mostly cheap riders and can't field full/strong teams for most races.

We'll see how this year goes (the current format doesn't seem amazingly popular with only about 5 of us taking part) and have a look at the end of the year.

Personally I like the idea of picking a squad and running it for the whole year. It's finding a format that works for as many people to enjoy as possible.

alright, 19 WT teams with say 28 riders each gives a pool of 532 riders in total. In the preseason spreadsheet there are 1394, worth 9644.8 points in total.
There are 10 riders worth 30 or more, 40 worth 20-30, 261 worth 10-20.

So if we say 15 teams, each with 3 star riders worth 20+ points, and 10-12 worth 10-20. with another 15 or so under 10, then the 300 points is a little generous, say 280 points to pull things down, giving a total of 4200 points used.
If we say each team must have say 3 neo pros that brings us to 30 riders per team. Careful selection of non WT riders will help too because some of the Pro level teams like Caja, Netapp etc are getting invites and turning in good performances, expanding the available pool of riders.

At most I reckon you could have 20 teams, but you'd need to pull the points down, and someone would not have 3 'top' level rider over 30 points, so 15 seems fair, with maybe a random pick of one of the highest value 'star' riders when you sign up to avoid argument, and challenge you to build a team round that high cost rider.

My current team has 1 of those 30 point + riders, 5 at 20-30, 7 at 10-20 and just 5 at 3 points only and I'm pretty happy with the breakdown. The only observation is that sprinters are pricier 'cos these values come from the Fantasy game, not the WT points. If I picked again, I'd have a couple more 3 pointers to afford another well known sprinter. All my riders are WT, and I have a little overlap with all 3 other teams.

The other observation is that we don't pick the actual riders in each race, so maybe it would be an idea to have 20 teams, each allowed 450 points, and 60 riders. That would use 1200 of the riders and hopefully each team would get 9 in each race, being required to declare up front. 450 points is 30 riders at 300, 30 for 150 more, averaging 5 per rider.
To sort out who gets which riders, there are loads of ways. The fairest I can think of so far is everyone is assigned a top rider. You then have a pot of 'money' and can bid for the next 5 riders. Winning bid signs. Then new pot of money for next 5 and so on. Giving 12 rounds of drafts in total. Maybe that's too many, maybe 10 riders per draft for 6 rounds, or 12 for 5. First rider assigned avoids the inevitable bidding wars for Sagan or Wiggins or Cav. Or do bidding for riders over 10, and neo pros only, riders 3-10 in value sign for first offer after the bidding rounds complete.

Thoughts?

I think if your doing it as a draft rather than an auction per say then your way seems far too complicated and far too restrictive.

I don't quite get your first point 532 riders of WT means all the others are non-WT therefore in the main will not be selected if we are sticking to WT races, so obviously if you had 15 teams you are not leaving much choice for people if its a draft and made them pick certain riders within certain price brackets etc

Started off thinking WT only, then got distracted trying to work out the points breakdown, and forgot WT in the process of disappearing up my own orifice.

If we're doing it for WT points as the first priority, you have 19 teams worth of riders. Just becomes a question then of how you choose or allocate riders. If you want to give people choice, then you need less than 19 teams. Even 1
less gives some choice. The fewer the more choice.

I agree we need more than the handful of us already doing this, and to attract players it probably needs to be simpler than the spreadsheet I'm doing, and I suspect you guys are using. I don't mind the effort, since I'm learning a lot about the sport doing this, which makes it worthwhile to me.

The auction/draft mess and 60 riders are too complex and too many. We'll see how many riders we each get into each WT race this year, but I don't think at 28-30 you will fill your roster for every race, unless you pick heavily along the lines of a current WT team lineup, or are very good/lucky. For example I've been over for TdU and PN, but I'll be short for Tirreno, and I'm guessing for other races to come.

As for picking, if we can't just do as we did this year and we have to avoid overlaps, then we need some way to make it a fair process. How about I get first choice, since I'm going to come last this year

If we had say 12 team slots, what about each of us taking 1/12th of the riders available, so we split all the WT riders between us? Ignoring values, other than as a guide to 'quality'. Or is that what you mean by draft. I'm never sure how drafts work, since in NBA, the only sport I follow that does drafts (that I know of) it's a mystery to me how it works.

I still think a random allocation of the top n riders to teams could work.

Anyway got 9 months to iron this out, so no hurry. Anyone has a light bulb moment, please illuminate us all.

I don't think its about having a full 9 riders or whatever it may be for every race, as having 6 could score you more points. Its more about your roster and in picking that is the skill to balancing it the best. Also we need a calender in place if we are going to score it fantasy wise, it doesn't need to correlate with on here as I would do the points manually. But knowing a calender in advance means I could try and ut together some kind of spreadsheet.

It think as a draft goes I had this in mind. (So forget the rider values for now)

So we have 10 teams. 27 draft rounds + 3 neo-pro rounds
Teams A to J
Round 1: Order of Picks: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J
Round 2: B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,A
Round 3: C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,A,B
Round 4: D,E,F,G,H,I,J,A,B,C
Round 5: E,F,G,H,I,J,A,B,C,D
Round 6: F,G,H,I,J,A,B,C,D,E
Round 7: G,H,I,J,A,B,C,D,E,F
Round 8: H,I,J,A,B,C,D,E,F,G
Round 9: I,J,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H
Round 10: J,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H

and that is repeated for 11-20 and 21-30

So every team rolls round in the order they pick. Also just because A goes first doesnt mean he has to Pick Cav or Sagan, he may choose to go Slagter, if he thinks he will do well. With a draft situation you often get quality going first but you also get people tactically thinking a certain rider may stay till round 3 or 4. So after round 1 a rider like Cancellara may be available, but A may not choice him in round 2, tactically thinking he may still be there in round 3. Its actually quite fun to do. Also latter on it rounds quality becomes less of an issue as they are more even so people choose favourites whereas the rider values may have then higher (I would choose Santambrogio over JTL in round 10 for example although Santambrogio would be much cheaper)

what do you think of that kind of idea?

Unless you organise a chat room with all 10 players, and do the picks interactively in a small number of sessions that translates into 300 posts/emails/online spreadsheet updates, each dependent on the last, and that could take a very long time to do. An auction could take even longer.

You could speed it up using software, but I suspect that might remove some of the fun element.

That is also very true, would need a think

NFL draft works in a way that order is swapped each round so.the last in the first round gets first second round pick. I'll dig out the order later.

Fantasy NFL draft also can be automated. You give all the riders a preference (in order) and when your pick comes up you get the rider who's highest on your list and still available. It works but its not ideal as you don't have control over the balance of riders and might end up with loads of GC guys and no sprinters. Perhaps a half and half system could work? You automate a draft for 5 rounds or 12 rounds giving everyone a base to work from then manually draft the rest allowing you to fill gaps.

One thing I would say is that just limiting to WT teams removes riders like Voeckler from the equation. If you allow people to pick from any team but state we only run WT races then that adds to the pool of available riders and picking from a non-WT team would be at your own risk.

Also, on the automated draft you could specify a GC or PC cap so when you hit that limit on sprinters you ignore the top guy on your list if he's classified as a sprinter and move on to the next.

My Paris-Nice is going ok so far, Bouhanni and Kittel hav picked up stages, Kelderman showed well in the prologue and both Westra and Quintana are looking strong. The only downside is my first major injury of the year losing Bouhanni.

My Tirreno-Adriatico team is:

Cavendish
Demare
Cancellara
Vanendert
Vanmarcke
Nordhaug
Sammy Sanchez
Andy Schleck

Looking strong with the leaders jersey after the TTT and a good chance of a result today. Overall though it's a much weaker team than my PN team with no real GC prospects in there.

You have Devolder too

Man, how could I forget such a superstar...

He got you 1 point yesterday

My hero.

Paris Nice looking good. Stages from Talansky and Kittel, Izagirre got a podium. Other positives are consistent top 20s from Roche, usually in close formation with Sorenson (who I didn't shortlist).

Sadly de Gendt, Gutierrez and JTL have pulled out.

On a broader note, Iglinsky who I haven't shortlisted got a second and Fuglsang has pulled out. Voigt and Roy have both been in breaks, showing the team colours.

So all in all I'm happy. Talansky is developing nicely and van Garderen is looking solid rather than exceptional.

Tirreno has been as expected a bit of a let down. Ok Cav took the jersey in the TTT, but since then we have a problem, seems the guys aren't leading him out, instead some blokes from some O Meagre Farmer Blotto have been mucking about...

The other main positive so far is Dowsett. Excellent showing in the TTT and top 20 in a flat stage. Quite pleased with him. Roux has been in a break, showing the jersey, so he's doing the job I hired him for.

The big disappointment was Cancellara who seemed to be towing a load of dead weight round the TTT. In the form of Andy and the rest of Team Wireless House Cat's Road Trip who it seems he snagged on his rear mech and towed round the course.

Glad Andy finished Camaiore, but he looked unconvincing at Strada, and he needs to finish Tirreno. Just finish, anywhere in the field. Doesn't matter if he's 20 minutes down, just please finish a stage race.

Looking forward to pouching some WT points though, and hopefully doing some catchup.

Kittel may be redeeming himself, though there seems to be a dearth of top sprinters at Paris Nice. They all seem to be riding Tirreno. And Sagan... As DS I must talk to Cav again about his press conferences. Again.

Now I need to go and sort out JTL for the Classics. Really needed him to finish PN psychologically. Still top 10 at Amstel will make up for it.

For Paris-Nice as far as WT points go Ive had a second from Gilbert and Iglinsky, a win from Kittel and two 5th places for Ulissi giving me 16 points, Just joping Ulissi can hang in for a top 10 finish and more WT points

As for Tirreno a win for Sagan and a 3rd for Greipel

Will do another blog to go up next weekend I think, so you can check out my team there

Again none of my neo-pros doing anything for me to write about. May do a piece on Kwiatowski, as he has been the best youngster show anything over these two races

I'll write up a blog post once TA is finished but Paris-Nice has gone fairly well. Stage wins from Kittel and Bouhanni along with a strong showing from Keldermann in the prologue and an 8th overall from Westra mean that I'm happy but I haven't scored as many WT points as I would have liked.

I'll need to check but after Paris-Nice I think I'm on around 87, it leaves me 6th overall in the WT rankings sitting between Movistar and Radioshack but over 100 points behind Sky in first place.

If Sky win TA too with Froome then my aim of beating them looks to have gotten off to a bad start.

On the bright side, if we take 500 World Tour points as being the amount I need to get in order to avoid 'relegation' (15th place or higher at year end usually guarantees continuation of a license, last year 15th was Saxo on 401 but they under scored heavily so I expect it to be higher this year) then 87 from two and a bit races is strong and I shouldn't have too much trouble getting to 500.

I have you on 83 WT points and me on 77. Will email you the spreadsheet after Tirreno anyway

errrrm. I am reading the right page aren't I?

http://www.uciprotour.com/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template3/layout.as...

That is the WT table so far? Because ignoring Iglinsky (4 points) I appear to have 192 WT points from TdU (30) and PN (162) with Talansky on his own worth 92. That puts me 2nd overall, 1 point behind Sky after 2 races, though after 3, nowhere near I suspect. Which b****rs up my assertion that I'd come last.

As for Fantasy 382 points only in PN, so waaaaaayyyyy behind.

TA I haven't been tracking Fantasy Points because it's a Premium competition and I'm using my girlfriend's account (tina's tourers) for this.

I'll look at WT points when UCI post them. Should be easy, I think it's just Cav for me unless Dowsett turns in a fantastic TT tomorrow. Assuming TTT points are awarded to individuals not to all members of the team, so Dowsett won't get WT points for Movistar being 2nd.

Have you noticed that the Fantasy DS league has quite a few teams on it... Of which 2 of us seem to be actively having a go at this.

Yeah, I'm not sure if the others are following the rules or if they just join any league going but its more fun as a forum exercise really, the league is just for keeping score.

I'm lacking someone who can win a race at this point. I'm beginning to think going Wiggins over Froome may backfire, I expected Froome to try and win everything but I thought Wiggins would have at least rode a decent race by now! Unless he wins the Giro and is very strong at the Tour I think Froome may be the better bet both fantasy and WT point wise.

Despite being crap at the fantasy classics they may be my saving grace having Boonen, Gilbert and Cancellara. Although the spectre of Peter Sagan is looming large

I deliberately steered clear of Wiggins/Froome because I think other riders will sacrifice themselves to stop Sky winning, and both riders have weaknesses.

Contador has already tried riding off the front of the Sky train unsuccessfully so far, but I'm anticipating we will see lots of different tactics tried out to either disrupt, or use the train. I am concerned that Froome is tactically weak (see TA), where Wiggo's mountain time trial may not be able to contain an in form Contador in the high peaks. See Froome clearly being able to ride away from Wiggo on a couple of stages last year.

And whilst Contador and Sky are kicking each other about, van Garderen, Talansky, de Gendt, Roche and Fuglsang should all be sat waiting for an opportunity to pinch a stage or valuable seconds. Which is why I steered clear of Contador, Nibali, Valverde and JRod in favour of having 5 decent chances of a podium instead of 1, 2 or 3 pricier and maybe out of form potential winners.

As for Wiggo winning this year, I think Wiggo last year used the pre-Tour races to get a benchmark for where his and the team training level had reached. I don't think any of the races before the Tour were important to the team to win as races, just as practise for the Tour. That is not to say Wiggo is not proud of winning them, nor to say Sky disrespect those races in any way, but if they had not won them all I don't think they'd have been crying too many tears. This year the Giro is earlier in the year, they have good reference data on Wiggo's fitness and Froome's. The team tactics are proven and are being rolled out to the newer riders, and there seems little need to show their hand before the Giro. And with Porte winning PN, that sends another message.... This guy is a DS in our Grand Tour lineup. Imagine the team leader, and fear us Which may well provoke the kind of reaction I'm betting my season on.

Purely on WT points though Wiggo is going to be worth maybe 3-400 on his own, regardless of win or podium or top 10 even.

All of which aside, didn't Talansky do brilliantly. Some real brave riding there. WIth a slightly different team around him to help more in the mountains he might have beaten Porte. Be interesting if he's racing California this year.

As for the Classics... Cancellara, Iglinsky, JTL, Voigt, Dowsett, Rasch, maybe de Gendt could all feature for me, but I too have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of silly celebrations from Sagan. He looks in imperious form.

Sudden daft thought. If Sky seriously want to win a Classic they should get Wiggo to ride as a DS in one of the Spring races.

Sky specifically set out last year to win races with Wiggins to get him used to being the leader and all the post race stuff that a leader has to do (press conferences, drug tests, podiums etc). As a tour winner Wiggins doesn't need that this year but I guess Sky are doing the same trick with Froome, getting him used to leading races. That was to be expected and I think Froome will be looking to win more races like the Tour de Romandie or Dauphine ahead of the Tour de France. But I expect him to do absolutely nothing after that whereas Wiggins may have a crack at the Worlds TT or the team TT.

I expect Wiggins to try and hit some form before the Giro, possibly at the Catalunya/Pais Vasco/Romandie but we'll see. It really may come down to how well he does in the Tour to see how many points he brings in and whether he was worth it over a Contador/Rodriguez.

What I'm most curious about is which big hitters will be going to the Vuelta? Most of the proper out and out GC contenders are down for the Giro or TdF and I'm not sure how many, other than perhaps Nibali, will look to ride the Vuelta.

So after TA, 5 WT from Cav, 1 from Cancellara, which I drop, taking the 5 highest scorers leaving me 197 as a team, keeping me in second, but well behind Sky now, but still ahead of Bianco.

Milan San Remo:
Cav, Canc, Gorka, Maxim Iglinsky, Thor, Roux, Rasch, Schar and Appollonio.

Should hopefully get a podium, but Sagan is going to have to puncture to lose methinks.

Too dangerous with the big season goal of the Giro round the corner?

One of the reasons G missed the Classics altogether last year was the risk of getting injured and screwing up the team pursuit - yes it can happen in any race, but the risk is perceived as greater in the Classics.

Last year was a little different since by this time we knew Contador was out of Giro and TDF and would be back for Vuelta.

Otherwise, yeah, it's difficult... some riders who will pick up injuries in months ahead will ride it (eg Wiggins in 2011), other riders who blow in the Giro say and are looking to rescue season, then it's also an opportunity for some teams to give a younger rider a chance to lead them in a Grand Tour (as should have been the caae with Froome in 2011).

I didn't figure the Vuelta at all in my team selection. I've probably got riders who will be there in Astarloza, Gutierrez and Izaguirre. I didn't even really bother about the Giro specifically, though I'm guessing half my GC roster will do the Giro, the other half the Tour. Particularly with the reversal of the race formats with the Giro being more TT friendly, and the Tour toughening up.

The Vuelta will also attract climbers looking for WT points from stage wins like Martin and Roche maybe. And perhaps a GT sprinter looking to avoid Cav, Degenkolb, Greipel and Sagan, so it might suit Kittel to go there.

UPDATE: http://road.cc/content/blog/78612-season-proper

Blog update is up and my MSR team pretty much picks itself:

Cancellara
Boonen
Gilbert
Cavendish
Demare
Nordhaug

that's it, only 6 of my guys are racing, but they cover a few scenarios so fingers crossed I can do something.

My team for Catalunya isn't finalised as the start lists are being particularly flaky but it looks something like this:

Wiggins (hurrah!)
Quintana
Roche
Betancurt

Not the strongest squad but the potential for three top 10 finishers. Hopefully it'll be low on fantasy points, high on World Tour points.

Im gonna do my blog today whilst the race is on, just haven't had the time this week to get it done

Sagan
Voeckler
Gilbert
Degenkolb
Gerrans
Greipel
Iglinsky
Gatto
Ullisi

Thats me for today and for Catalunya I have just 2 at the moment

Bewley and Gerrans

I also have Kreder down for you Drheaton

With Sagan in your team you may as well wait until MSR is done for your blog. I just wanted to get mine out before Catalunya starts and I was up early anyway.

Hoping Catalunya helps me pick up some ground on you as Contador's points have left me well behind after TA. Westra and Roche haven't performed as I'd hoped either so I'm struggling a little.

Righto ok.

Also we need to do teams for E3 Prijs as its WT, I have 7 riders for you and 6 for me, so they should pick themselves anyway

E3 Prijs:

Hushovd, Schar, Cancellara, Rasch, Appollonio, M Iglinsky, Cattaneo, Dowsett,

Depends on the weather, but I have no great hopes despite a long list of good riders.

I know we're not doing the Criterium International, but I've high hopes for that with TJ, Roy, Roux, JTL, Voigt, Schleck, Xandio, Riblon and Talansky riding which to me looks like a really strong line up. Should also see how TJ and Cadel are getting on, which is a major influencer on my TdF team leader decision. Let's see some fireworks

Can't comment on Westra but Roche is Mr Consistently just outside the WT points... He's turning in top 20 rides daily but seems to be riding within himself. The fact he and Sorenson are getting to the line together implies to me that maybe he's just riding to see how everyone else's form compares. Doesn't seem to be pushing himself too hard. At least I'm hoping it's tactical, and not just lacking an extra gear. I was hoping he'd be riding more like Dan Martin is this year, and it was a toss up for me which one of the two I picked. I'm not unhappy with him though.

I hope Tejay wins as he is in my squad on a different fantasy game where the teams have budgets and contracts and he is my highest paid rider

I cant remember, are we doing E3-Harelbeke? I'm kinda hoping so as Cancellara is smashing it

Yes we are

Hurray!

You got 94 WT, 66 fantasy
Rob got 80 WT, 64 fantasy
I got 60 WT, 49 fantasy

At least I will get 6 WT points from this race, as its been terrible so far, thankyou Gerrans

I've been sat waiting for Fuglsang to do something. . . . but it looks like he's been talking to Roche about how to stay just high enough in the GC to not get fired without actually earning any points. Still always tomorrow, on several fronts.

For Gent Wevelgem I make mine:

Cav, Rasch, Appollonio, M Iglinsky, Hushovd, Schar, Cattaneo, Dowsett, Cancellara

though opinions vary over whether Rasch or Puccio are riding for sky. The fantasy game is the only place I can find listing Puccio instead. Can;t see Rasch winning though, so it's moot.

Meanwhile TJ 3rd today in the Crit, with Cadel 45 seconds back in 74th, just ahead of Bouhanni. That looks good for TJ as (joint) leader.

I need your team for Gent Drheaton as you have a choice of at least 10 riders I think

I have 7, Sagan, Gilbert, Degenkolb, Demare, Iglinsky, Nizzolo and Greipel

Hmmm,

Cavendish
Boonen
Cancellara
Gilbert
Vanmarcke
Demare
Devolder
Cattaneo
Van Rensburg

With Westra as my none rider.

which presumably fits in the 150 points, hence dropping Westra rather than say van Rensburg?

Speaking of which are we using the 150 points limit? I've only been taking it into account on the non premium races where I'm setting up on the girlfriend's account, I haven't bothered adding up otherwise. It did affect PN since that was why I dropped Iglinsky.

And are we doing the Classics purist? I.e. whoever we pick today limits who we have in Tour of Flanders and Roubaix?

No the 150 points doesn't apply as we already picked the squad on a tight budget, and many races we haven't had full teams or only just full teams

No not purist, its easier just doing it separate, and it makes it better for WT points anyway, as real teams pick individually for each classic.

Fine. The 150 would have meant you dropping 1 or 2 riders today, which is not exactly fair, given you only have 7 anyway. Albeit possibly 7 of the top 10.

Maybe we should have made it clearer at the start. Also Ive left your Iglinsky points in, both WT and fantasy, so I presume they were not in your 1234 (so you had 1275 before I started scoring). As a presume you would have picked him else. I had to do your overall total slightly differently as I didnt have the rider breakdown scores (for your riders that were not in either mine or Dans team) pre Catalunya.

(removed my email address now Ive just got yours) I will be able to send the spreadsheet to you, as I do Dan, with all the scores on, after every couple of events

I dropped Westra as I don't see him doing much today and Van Rensburg might sprint if Degenkolb isn't there (or get 5 pts for a Degenkolb win).

I've just watched the Crit highlights from ITV4 last night, and at the end they announced are going to do highlights programmes of Roubaix and LBL on the race day. LBL of course, according to Mr Boulting being one of Wiggo's targets for this season.

I nearly fell off my chair...

Right guys two races this weekend, Flanders Sunday followed by Pais Vasco Monday.

No Gilbert makes it easy for me with exactly 9 riders for Flanders, I have you with 8 Dan and an exact 9 for you too Rob.

Just about to look at Pais Vasco teams now

Also will send you out the spreadsheet after Roubaix/Pais Vasco have finished next weekend

For Pais Vasco I have exactly 9, Dan has 8 and Rob you have 12 to choose from so just let me know your final lineup when you decide

In order of preference:

VAN GARDEREN Tejay
TALANSKY Andrew
DE GENDT Thomas
IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka
FUGLSANG Jakob
ROCHE Nicholas
ROY Jérémy
VOIGT Jens
RIBLON Christophe

with
TIERNAN-LOCKE Jonathan
ZANDIO ECHAIDE Xabier
SCHLECK Andy

as reserves in case anyone drops out before Monday.
I have a feeling Sky will be pushing Porte's cause at the expense of JTL and Xandio again, and stone dead last doesn't earn WT points...

thanks

Got you with 10 now for Pais Vasco Dan, as Gilbert and Kreder are no riding

I had 10 too also, decided to take a punt on Schleck over Boswell

Right, selection from 12 for my team:

Sanchez
Quintana
Gilbert
Roche
Tiernan-Locke
Betancurt
Lutsenko
Kreder (M)
Barguil

Not riding:
Schleck
Vanendert
Nordhaug

All good

Its all very tight between us, I need some WT points from Contador and Ulissi as I doubt I will get any from P-R

We are all easily ahead of Sky on WT with our total scores, and all still ahead based on our top 5 riders.

Its not a surprise at this stage as Sky always suck in the classics. If Gilbert hits form for Ardennes then I hope I can build enough of a lead to offset any ground I'll lose when Froome wins the TdF.

Bet you regret leaving out Betancurt now, he is in mine

One second...

Ahem, I don't know what you're talking about, he's in my team!

I'm not overly bothered actually, its the WT points that matter most and that's done on my 12 top riders so he'll count for that.

Its annoying that I've been picking him only for him to score big when I don't but he's in my standard team so I don't feel too bad. Hopefully he can hold on to a solid top 10 now and bag me some serious WT points.

In the meantime I get 1st and 2nd at a non WT, non Fantasy race...

After slipping up on day one, Fuglsang has been careful to not accidentally end up in the top ten and score some more WT points. The rest of the team seem to be happy supporting this by also riding just outside the top 20.

Thanks heavens for Fabian. I only hope falling yesterday hasn't spoilt this weekend.

And Laurent Pichon keeps churning out top 10s in the Continental 1 days. I'm trying to work out if that's promising or not given that he's 26 and in his 4th season. At least he's consistent, and showing the jersey in places I hadn't anticipated.

Cancellara has been great for me, Boonen has been a bust. But that's why I picked all of the major classics riders, to cover myself in case something happened. Another win from Cancellara on Sunday and I'll consider my classics season a success whatever happens in the Ardennes.

EDIT: Also, a win for Durbridge at Circuit Cycliste Sarthe is nice as so far he hadn't done much this season. Shame it's not WT.

You mean now you have swapped both Vanendert and Nordhaug for Betancurt and Lutsenko!

Vanendert? Never heard of him, and who's this Nordhaug character?

Not bothered really, like I said, my main aim for the year is based around WT points and the major tours so while it'd be nice to have the fantasy points it's not the end of the world.

Just to check your understanding, WT standings at the end of the year will be done like the proper teams right with the top 12 scoring riders' totals being added together? I can't be bothered to get into the realms of the UCI's 'sporting criteria' they use for allocating licenses, it's massively complicated...

http://inrng.com/2013/04/uci-publish-sporting-criteria/

You can have the points, cant see Betancurt in the top 10 after the ITT anyway

Yeh that is correct, I just have total points at the moment as its easier as the races keep on going, but it will be easy to add it up for top 12

I haven't checked actual scores but I don't think this weekend could have gone much better for me, Quintana winning Pais Vasco and a 1,2 at Paris-Roubaix, WT points galore!

Im not sure you should be allowed the Betancurt points

Boo!

From a simplicity point of view I think the WT points should count because at the end of the year its going to be too hard to strip out points for riders based on when we did and didn't pick them. He's in my squad so I think I should get the points.

It may be though that come the year end they aren't used if 12 other guys score more than him.

I'm happy though for the fantasy points to be disregarded.

how is it, that after a great ride by one of my team, topping a Classics season that has so far been littered with wins and podiums, that somehow I feel as though I've come last... ?

Mind you, as Fabian was powering into the stadium, I was grabbing a Strava KOM, and by a decent margin. So not all bad.

Roll on all those 1 week Tours where someone has no serious GC contenders :-P

Speaking of which, here;s my team for Romandie:

Astarloza, Roy, Talansky, Cav, Rasch, Hoogerland, de Gendt.

Which is thinner than I thought it might be.

Sorry I've not be around much the last couple of weeks, been travelling with work, so I've not had much time to do anything with my team, as reflected by my plummet down the Spring Classics competition board. I'm pretty sure I've not had a full team at any of the recent races, so that's a bit poor. Anyway now I'm back, hopefully I'll get some time to focus on the Giro.

I need to try and work out how I've done, I meant to do another blog before the Ardennes but work was crazy so that never happened.

Think I'll just write a bumper one catching up the classics, Romandie, Pais Vasco and Catalunya (oh man it's been too long since I wrote the last one) and looking ahead to the Giro. Best get cracking.

I will send you the spreadsheet. The classics races Ive just put riders in who started, and made sure anyone who scored any points were in

Evening all, it's a bit late but I've posted my update:

http://road.cc/content/blog/82321-time-flies

Looking forward to the Giro my team looks good:

Wiggins
Kelderman
Sanchez
Betancur
Durbridge
Cavendish
Bouhanni
Cattaneo

are all announced so far so I have high hopes.