Using delisted riders

Makes it very hard to pick an
Makes it very hard to pick an overall purist team if you’re limited to only riders racing in the next stage…

Its not really in the spirit
Its not really in the spirit of the game…

why should you be able to choose riders who aren’t starting the race?

It makes no sense!

Yeah, by freeing up what is
Yeah, by freeing up what is actually around 0.8 – 1.5 credits (2.3 point DS instead of the minimum 2.7 in the race or likely more as he already had Izagirre/Bernaudeau) you can bring in other riders costing more than you would otherwise have been able to afford.

Dave is right in that you still need to pick the right guys and that this in no way is a guarantee of success but what you can do is pick a team otherwise unavailable to you (Wiggins, Froome, Voeckler, Kessiakoff, Pinot, Izagirre, Bernaudeau +2 non-riders). By keeping these non-riders in through the rest of the tour you also get to keep those credits for every subsequent stage assuming you don’t make transfers.

It all depends on how who you want but it can be the difference on one stage between picking Goss or Griepel for example or being able to keep Kessiakoff throughout the mountains rather than having to juggle him in and out to get other riders in.

In the case of johnking he’s brought the two non-riders in well before the stages where he’s scored loads of points and it’s difficult to see how much advantage there’s been until you get to stage 16/17 at which point without having the non-riders he would not have been able to afford the team he had. He may have chosen to drop Pinot and lose a handful of points or he may not have been able to bring in Voeckler and therefore lost out on maybe 150 points…

I’m not arguing that he’s not done well, he’s made the right picks and fair play to him, he deserves his prize, but there’s a clear advantage to having those non-riders in there.

Before this explodes into
Before this explodes into another helmet type discussion where we all go round and round without getting anywhere can someone explain how by picking a rider valued at 2.4 or 2.5 who is not in the race compare to picking someone who was in the race at maybe 2.6 going to effect the game in the long run ?

By my reckoning you score by about 0.5 credits per stage ?

Yes, maybe the problem isn’t
Yes, maybe the problem isn’t that you can do it, but that some people didn’t realise you can do it

Aye, if it’s something that
Aye, if it’s something that people want to keep then keep it, but the rules need to be beefed up to make sure nothing is left to interpretation.

The game’s grown and expanded quickly over the last couple of years but it’s still operating in the same vein that it was at the start, as a bit of fun. The problem is that people are now paying to play and have a chance at winning big value prizes. Take the rules seriously (even if the full set of ‘extended’ rules are made available separately to the easy to follow ‘how to’ page) and make sure everything is covered, everything is clear and nothing is left open to interpretation or unclear.

I didn’t read the rules for
I didn’t read the rules for the game, nor did I write them, but I sussed out that you could pick non-participating riders to make up your team on day 1 of our first game last year because the pick riders button was obviously a filter button that could be flipped to all riders.

I haven’t done it in Grand Tours because I don’t think it’s that useful in GTs where there are usually enough low value stars and DS riders – it is much more useful in one day races. I also think it is a valid tactic (which is in the rules if you do read them) because as has been said above you are taking a risk. You are only going to stretch your buying power fractionally so it’s not as advantageous as an extra transfer, so the risk matches the potential reward. Also let’s not forget that last year your budget grew with success over the game and during races – so the better your riders did the more budget you got.

Finally, I’d say that ‘loophole’ makes the game even more realistic – because in the real peloton, as in every other big money sport – teams and players will seek to gain any advantage that isn’t specifically banned.