Since I figure all the bike geeks are over here anyway...

Anyone want to put together a fantasy game for this year's TdF?

We can either run it like OLN where you take your daily choice of rider to win that day's stage for points or we can have a draft and put together teams.

There is a good fantasy team site here:
http://www.velogames.com/

Or, we can just wing it and you can post your picks for yellow, green, polka dot, and white jerseys. Bonus points for team category.

I'm down with one from Velogames. I've used that one over the years. We can list our teams here.

Aggisimo is my team.

[This message has been edited by dave99ag (edited 6/28/2006 2:33p).]

i honestly don't know enough of the riders to make an informed decision.

I'm game!
When do we sign up?

My team is picked. We are the Unfrozen Cavemen Lawyers. I asked the guy to set up a TexAgs mini group and add your group and mine to it.

Anyone else?

Tarpon, go to the link, select a team, and in the comments section, tell them to add your team to the "TexAgs" group.

Teams must be selected before the start of the Tour. I suggest that we not post our team choices until after the selection process is closed.

Why would we watch it this year?

quote:

---

Why would we watch it this year?

---

I actually think the TdF will be more interesting without Lance. The casual fan may not care, but that's fine by me. Heck, I watched the Giro on my computer and listened to the Spring Classics as well. I'm very tempted to subscribe to cycling.tv.

It will be fun to watch Basso and Ullrich battle it out. I think it'll be a battle for third after them though. Which American will emerge: Levi, Flandis, Georgie, Zabriski? Lots of good storylines this year.

AggieOO, just make a team at Velogames. It doesn't matter too much about knowing the riders.

The Ninja Lampshades are ready to start pedaling.

Beer Drinkers are registered!

My governor is a Jewish Cowboy.

Dopers Anonymous, Inc. reporting at the starting line!

Heroic Posers it is!

Team Rocket Fuel is in.

(You "NewsRadio" fans will know who my team sponsor is.)

BTW, I'm pretty excited about this year's tour. Lots of intrigue. I've been watch Cyclysm Sundays on OLN every week this year.

Anyone interested in cycling should read "Lance Armstrong's War." It is very informative about the sport in general.

quote:

---

Heroic Posers

---

LOL

My governor is a Jewish Cowboy.

I'll second "Lance Armstrong's War." Lots of good info on the other cyclists. Jan, Floyd, etc.

Team Hill Slug in the game...

hope you don't have Ullrich or Basso picked to win, both are suspended:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jun06/jun30news2
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2006/news/story?id=2505072
Here's to hoping Floyd Landis and Georgie are battling it out.

Whoa. This is a catastrophe for the Tour. I really cannot believe it.

I suggest everyone take a look at their teams again.

http://www.velonews.com/tour2006/news/articles/10176.0.html

The witch hunt continues.

If France had any decent riders left, you can bet they wouldn't be "implicated."

I guess my dopers weren't so anonymous, after all. Those were my top two riders. ****!

Yep, time to adjust my team as well.

Amazing! This is bigger than the Festina scandal and that was pretty crazy.

[This message has been edited by dave99ag (edited 6/30/2006 8:40a).]

What is "Lance Armstrong's War" about. Is it his book or another author?

The author followed Lance during the 2004 TdF campaign. You get some great insights about Lance and other riders from an outsider. It's not your typical Lance book.

I enjoyed the technical information it provided. There's a chapter discussing Lance's testing methods and how Landis was actually ahead of him in some of the tests. Good stuff.

My sentimental favorite is Leipheimer, but with the big 2 out, my guess is Vino or Valverde takes it.

When you resubmit, please ask to be made part of the TexAgs mini-league.

From the game organizer:

quote:

---

Important Alert re Fantasy Tour de France 2006 Inbox

Velogames <george@velogames.com> to me
More options 7:47 am (1½ hours ago)

Dear Fantasy Tour de France 2006 participant,

You are receiving this email because you have entered the Velogames
Fantasy Tour in recent days.

I hope you will forgive this extra email - I usually aim to keep my
mailouts limited to an intial "teaser" email and then confirmation of
your team.

However, there has been HUGE news regarding this year's Tour, with
big implications for the Velogames contest, and it certianly deserves
a mailshot.

MAIN RIDERS OUT OF TOUR

As things stand, all riders named in the Spanish doping investigation
have been suspended by their teams. These include the 2 big
favourites, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, along with other support
riders (see full list below in Appendix One).

UPDATING YOUR SQUADS - Please use the entry form

It is highly likely players will want to change their squads. If you
do wish to change, simply resubmit another team using the entry form.
Only the last-submitted team for each player will be entered. You can
make any changes you like - even change all 9 riders if you want.

If you do not resubmit a team before the 1100CET deadline, the
reserve riders will be used where possible. As you will appreciate, a
fair proportion of the 1500 entries that have currently been
processed will now need to be adjusted, so please try to resubmit
your team fully using the entry form. The reserve box was originally
intended to be used only for a few teams, not to make wholesale
changes to hundreds of teams. Therefore, if at all possible, please
resubmit all changes through the entry form.

MINI-LEAGUES

If you do need to resubmit a team, please also included the mini-
league name in the comments box again, as the comments in your
initial entry could be discarded when I delete your original team.

POSSIBLE DELAY TO FIRST SCORING UPDATE

As things stand, it is likely the first scoring update will not be
made until late Sunday. I appreciate your patience in allowing me to
make any adjustments to the teams affected, before the first official
resuls are published.

AN UPBEAT ENDING

And finally, to end on a couple of positive notes (certainly no pun
intended here!!).

Firstly, it is hoped that today may be seen as the day cycling grew
some balls and started to seriously fight the malaise. The organisers,
sponsors and teams have made this decision for the good of the sport,
and this should be remembered. It is absolutely possible that some of
the riders named will subsequently be found innocent. It must be
awful for them to lose their Tour place. But there are bigger issues
at stake here, and the message sent out is the correct one. Perhaps
we are now finally seeing action upon the many lessons that have been
learned, by issues such as the death of Tommy Simpson on Ventoux, the
problem of the Festina team in 1997, the sad demise of Marco Pantani.
We can hope, anyway.

And secondly... The 2 main favourites have been withdrawn... The
Yellow Jersey is up for grabs... Your 100 VeloCredits are going to
spread a long way... And it will be the most open Tour for decades!!
Enjoy your new-found selection crisis!

Vive le Velo,

George.


APPENDIX ONE: Affected Riders

From what information is available, the following riders have been
named. This list only includes riders who are in Tour de France teams.
This may not be a complete list. It is worthwile to keep an eye on
the cycling news sites for an updated list before you make your final
selections

T-Mobile:
Jan Ullrich (Deutschland)
Oscar Sevilla (Spanien)

CSC:
Ivan Basso (Italien)

Astana-Würth (Liberty Seguros):
Giampaolo Caruso (Italien)
Michele Scarponi (Italien)
Marcos Serrano (Spanien)
David Etxebarria (Spaien)
Angel Vicioso (Spanien)
Isidro Noizal (Spanien)
Unai Osa (Spanien)
Jörg Jaksche (Deutschland)
Joseba Beloki (Spanien)

ag2r:
Francisco Mancebo (Spanien)

Phonak:
Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Spanien)
Jose Ignacio Gutierrez (Spanien)

Saunier Duval:
Carlos Zarate (Spanien)

Caisse d\'Epargne:
Constantino Zaballa

---

I only lost Ullrich on my team, which did allow for some better domestiques.

I don't think Vino can do the Tour on his own if he gets to stay. Most of his team has been dismissed.

i lost ulrich too, but that was the only one.

I lost Basso and had to rejuggle some things, allowing me some interesting choices for domestiques.

I'm also playing the Performancebike.com fantasy game with a different team, and that one will be difficult to redo.

Thankfully, I went conservative on my team leaders, neither of whom were Basso or Ullrich. I have a high-point sprinter I didn't want to give up.

I only lost Sevilla. Not really a big loss, but I did shuffle some to avoid some of the guys weakened by their team losses.

DaveAg99,
You're right about Vino. I wrote that before I saw the story. Now, it sounds like he may not get to start either, because a team can't start with less than 6 guys (or is it 5?), and most of his team was implicated.

Dave99Ag,
You're right about Vino. I wrote that before I saw the story. Now, it sounds like he may not get to start either, because a team can't start with less than 6 guys (or is it 5?), and most of his team was implicated.

I love how all of these guys are out of the Tour because of "implications." Where's the freaking evidence? Must be the same place where these team leaders' gonads are located.

Betting halls accross Euroland are prob re-doing odds at a mad pace. The Frogs will get punked, again, in their own crib! The question will be which American (Levi) will be on the podium at month's end.

I am still stunned about Basso and Ulrich.
I can see Ulrich being bused for illegal drugs again (X), but not Basso.

My governor is a Jewish Cowboy.