http://road.cc/ is a British site that has another fantasy league. In this one, you are given a budget of 175 points and need to pick a team of nine riders: A leader, a sprinter, a climber, two all-rounders, and four domestiques. Riders are given values that range from three points for some Basque guy who you never heard of to 40 for the top studs. You're allowed two substitutions after each stage, so a sharp guy can do well. First prize is a pretty sweet bike, so I'm paying a little more attention to this one.
My picks prior to today's stage:
Team leader: Tejay Van Garderen - cost 21 points
A cheap pick to free up some budget space for other riders. I didn't expect any of the GC contenders to be high up on the stage finish today, so my big scoring opportunities were in the sprinter and all-rounder categories. Tejay is a guy who can ride quite well in anger, so there was a chance that he could have snuck into a late break as well. Cadel Evans was obviously the big surprise in this category today, and either I'll trade for him tonight or wait to see how BMC goes in the team time trial tomorrow.
Sprinter: Thor Hushovd - cost 37 points
I'm very happy with this pick. Thor is a strong guy and would have loved to trade the rainbow world champion's jersey for yellow today. He won't be contesting the big field sprints and will instead be part of the leadout train for Tyler Farrar, but he's a great finisher on a difficult run-in like we had today. I'll be making some changes in this category once I get a handle on how teams are contesting the intermediate sprints. Farrar and Greipel looked great in that respect today, while Cavendish and Petacchi just royally fucked it all up.
Climber: Rigoberto Uran Uran - cost 15 points
Another cost-saving pick, particularly since there were no intermediate mountain points available today and this league doesn't award mountain points earned on stage finishes. That said, I think he is tremendously undervalued and I might hang onto him for a while.
All-Rounders: Tom Boonen - cost 33 points
Thomas Voeckler - cost 25 points
I could have bought Gilbert in this category, but at a cost of 40 points. As I mentioned above, I figured he might be suffering from a lack of drugs. Tom Boonen is a favorite of mine. I liked to see him pick up a couple points in the intermediate sprint when he kept fighting and some guys in front of him had sat up. And you've got to love a guy who gets caught using drugs once every year or two, but only recreational cocaine. I picked Voeckler because his team is based out of the region that we raced in today and he knows the area well, having won the 2010 French national championship there. He was up there in the final kilometers today, pushing the pace after the peloton split and following all the right wheels up until Fabian Cancellara's bizarre behavior handed the stage to Philippe Gilbert. I'm fairly happy with both of these picks today, but I shouldn't have second-guessed myself.
Domestiques: Linus Gerdemann - cost 14 points
Laurens Ten Dam - cost 14 points
Lars Bak - cost 9 points
Yaroslav Popovych - cost 7 points
I picked a couple of expensive domestiques, both because I think they have a good chance to do something and because I should be able to do a straight trade for another domestique who gets into a lucky breakaway and suddenly rises in value. Also, Laurens Ten Dam has been making me lol all spring because every time I see him he looks more and more like a hobo.
***Official Tour de France Thread***
Linear Mode
