Velogames trolling Quintana again by putting him as a "climber" with the 2nd-tier GC guys and 8 points cheaper than Froome. Even though he's not *that* bad at TT.

Anyway, I'm in.

Thanks, I'm in.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

When I first saw your name I thought it said Al Trautwig. I was like wow, this game just got a lot more serious.

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Brian

Wait until Craig Hummer enters.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

I'm in. I've never played though. Are substitutions made during the race as needed?

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

No subs.

I've had riders like Cav and Contador crash out of the race and that's just bad luck for me (and worse luck for them).

If you play their "Spring Classics" game you'll get to make subs. You'll need to make subs during that game because riders don't do every race and different riders will do better in certain races.

Good luck!

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Team Shut Up Legs is in.

Looks like my duty of creating the Slowtwich league has ended! All good, I only created them because no one else would.

Lets see if my team does better than all the races in 2017 so far, Tour of Suisse was my best one so far.

Will this TDF be another Froome march of Victory, lets hope not.

I'm in. Never done this before, seems like a lot less work than fantasy baseball.

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--Chris

I'm sure you would have dotted your i's and crossed two t's as you would have spelled Slowtwitch correctly ;)

Entered.

Aside: I owned one of the early Websites for fantasy-sports cycling in 2002-2003 under the domain FantasyBikeRace.com. (Good names like FantasyCycling were taken but most weren't being used for anything). I ran it for a couple of seasons but couldn't figure out a good way to make a buck from it. I wasn't trying to get rich but making enough to cover site costs and for a friend to do the programming would have been nice. I was also getting immersed in graduate school and was putting too much time into the site. And I was really burning out on the doping in the sport. We were dealing with questions about reworking results after failed tests and how long to wait to distribute awards and so on...not stuff that was fun to think about.

The biggest difference that I see from what we did and Velogames was that we had you pick more riders than you could race on any given day so you could log in and change your lineup to fit that day's course. Not realistic, I know. But it kept people coming back every day if they wanted to do well (and, in theory, clicking through advertisements... which almost nobody actually did).

Anyway, I have picked a team that I am sure will be crap!

I'm in Team Bullnose ready to roll

Team Ken is in!

No idea what a good strategy is but I'm hoping for a few stage wins from my picks.

One Happy Team out of Aruba with be unbeatable under the direction of Dr Michele Ferrari!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

In, thanks!

Team Unsure in, will prove To TdSuisse was pure luck

Entered as team GripNRip

Team Chamois Whammy is in the starting grid!

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

I'm in. Team "Pane e Sapone" is looking to be the cleanest Team, one way or another.

Now that the Tour has started, but before any results are in, is the time where we can be overconfident about our picks. I mean explain why we picked who we did why did, but before the cold hard reality of the results begin to roll in and the lucky punk who picked a Fortuneo rider for 4 points comes out with a stage win and a stint in yellow.

I'll go first.



Valverde: Because this "mountainous but no MTF" course suits someone who can sprint from the GC group. And because maybe Quintana might not be 100% from the giro.
Bardet: Ditto. The downhill parts suit someone without fear and rewards someone willing to take risks
Aru: because Fuglsang will be roped into domestique duty once more.
Izagirre: At 10 points, seemed like a decent pick if the GC group stays conservative.
Kittel + Degenkolb: Together they cost roughly as much as Sagan, but with Cavendish sick, Griepel getting older and a bazillion sprint stages, this tour is for Kittel. I still think Sagan will win green, but to pick him means you also need to take a few of 4 pointers, and no one wants that. Choice was between (Kittel + Degs + Stybar) vs (Sagan + 2x 4 pointers). Seemed obvious.
Kung: Cheaper than Tony Martin, and for 6 points a smallish shot at yellow, and two decent stage results in the TTs.
Cummings: Good for a free stage win.
Stybar: How is he 6 points again?

Can't figure out how to copy and paste but here's what I've got.

Porte for the GC
Sagan for stage points and Green Jersey points
Demare for sprint stage points
Tony Martin for the ITT's
Talansky, Chavez, and Caruso for climbs
Polijanski and Burghardt for "assist" points

Good luck!

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

..and just like that, Valverde is down and out, along with my fantasy team.

Never give up! Never surrender!

In 2014, I had Cav, figuring he'd win some sprints and he'd have the Yellow Jersey after Stage 1 into Harrowgate. He crashed in the sprint finish and separated his shoulder. He's done.

Still figured I'd at least do OK with Contador riding for GC (back when Contador still had something in his tank). But then he crashes on Stage 10 while eating a candy bar. He's done.

I think I still finished MOP with Sagan. He's a points machine.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

And boom, I'm in 5th place after day 1.

This will probably be my best chance to talk smack so I'm taking it! Losers!!

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--Chris

Thanks for making this league wookie

Too bad the weather was so wet, lots of gc guys (except valverde) were holding back.
My guy Kung did better expected, lots of pressure on him to be the next Spartacus.

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res, non verba