fantasy tour de france scoring

How to Not Finish Last in Tour de France Fantasy

Rule your mini-league, or at least avoid ignominious defeat, with these strategies.

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Don’t be Lee. Sure, he was able to carve nine hours off his sentence by scarfing a bunch of waffles, but it’s far better to just…not finish last.

There are several fantasy games around the Tour, all with different rules, and some of them get a little arcane. We’re focusing on two: the official fantasy Tour from the organizers , and VeloGames’s long-running fantasy competition, simply called VeloGames 2023 for trademark reasons.

How Tour de France Fantasy Works

Both leagues require you pick a certain mix of riders for a balanced team; you can’t go all sprinters, for example.

VeloGames is the simpler of the two: you have a 100-point budget to pick nine riders (which, after the UCI reduced official team sizes to eight, is one more than the teams in the actual race get). Each rider scores points based on his ride on each stage, including finish placing, time in the breakaway (if he joined one), any King of the Mountain (KOM) and intermediate sprint points scored, and overall standings in each of the various jersey competitions.

You also earn points when a teammate of your chosen rider does well. That all sounds complicated, but it’s pretty basic: You pick nine riders you think will find success individually or through their teams, and you’re set with them the whole Tour. There’s no substitutions, even if a rider drops out. If you want to set your team and not check standings daily, this is your league.

The official game from the Tour seems similar on its face: You have a budget (120 stars, which is the currency) to pick eight riders. There are similar points scales for stage finish, KOM, and sprint points, and position in various jersey competitions . You can score points in the combativity classification, but only for the rider awarded each day’s prize; there are no breakaway or teammate points.

The big differences from Velo to the official Tour de France fantasy game:

• You can swap riders midrace, for 50 credits.
• You can designate one rider each stage as your Stage Winner Bonus—all points that rider scores that day are doubled.

That requires you to change your designation each stage. If you want to tinker with your lineup like you do with weekly picks for fantasy football, the ASO game is your huckleberry.

(If you really want to nerd out, ProCyclingStats ’s game has more intricate rules and an arbitrage-like theme to it, where you buy and sell riders as they appreciate or depreciate in value. It’s cool, but complex.)

Broad Advice for Tour de France Fantasy Games

Don’t skimp on your gc guy.

The way both games are designed, the favorites for the overall will cost the most points. That’s because it’s difficult, albeit not impossible, to win your mini-league without picking the overall race winner .

We can’t tell you who that’s going to be, but what we can say is this is the one place where you should spend whatever points you think will get you the best possible choice, a.k.a. the rider you really think is going to win. Don’t try to get cute and budget points picking who you think will finish in second and third place. The math of the games is not kind.

Go reliable and versatile on sprinters

This is one place where consistent finishes can outpoint a winner over time. The cumulative point totals with a guy who’s regularly hitting top-five finishes is higher than someone who wins once or twice and is out of the top 10 on other stages.

Good picks here include Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen, Mads Pedersen, Biniam Girmay, and Fabio Jakobsen, Julian Alaphilippe, all of whom are contenders for the green jersey and are capable in both field sprints and trickier finishes with small hills.

Don’t get locked in on rider classifications

Because the games are predicated on balanced rosters, each assigns riders to distinct categories: all-arounder/ general classification , climber, sprinter, etc. But that may not match up with their own goals, or your view of how the race will unfold. Julian Alaphilippe may also listed as a contender (because he’s French), but his fifth-place overall at the 2019 Tour notwithstanding, he’s actually a stage hunter : a climber who can sprint.

As you pick, keep your goals and predictions in mind—if you think a climber’s going to win the overall and he’s not listed in the All Arounder group, pick him anyway, and use an All Arounder pick for different purposes.

Check your lineup against confirmed rosters the night before

With COVID still looming, it’s entirely possible someone will positive-test right out of a start spot. Make sure the guys you’re racing are actually in the race. It’s not official, but the most accurate roster list is on ProCyclingStats .

VeloGames Strategies

Use a “barbell” strategy to boost points around your gc contener.

This strategy leverages VeloGames’s teammate points awards. Option 1: pick a low-cost teammate who won’t score his own points, but could be a goldmine of points based on his team leaders. This is a good strategy to fill out a roster if you don’t have a lot of points left after picking GC riders and sprinters. A good option here would be someone like UAE-Emirates Vegard Staeke Langen, a guy doing the thankless grunt work for high-profile team leaders.

Option 2: Pick a versatile, higher-pointed teammate who can also get his own results. A good option here would be Jumbo’s van Aert, a threat in TTs and sprints. Your best bets are teams able to win multiple stages of different types, like Jumbo and UAE Team Emirates, but only if they fit your GC strategy.

Hedge your sprint pick

Fully a third of this year’s stages are, on paper, likely sprint finishes. And breakaway success on flatter stages of the Tour has been abysmal the past decade. The teams are simply too good at timing the catch. So sprinters are going to play a big role this year. Flat stages favor pure sprinters like Caleb Ewan and Mark Cavendish . But more versatile types, like van Aert, merit a look because they can score points in a variety of scenarios.

The best strategy may be to hedge: pick one higher-cost sprinter of one type, and a lower-point sprinter of another as your wild-card selection. Just remember riders who drop out will still keep all points scored to that stage, but are not eligible for teammate points after that.

Roll the dice on breakaways

Breaks are a fool’s game to try to predict, with few exceptions (hello wild card teams). Your best bet this Tour is to go one of two ways with affordable options: with time-trial style guys who will give it a go on transitional stages (neither flat nor mountainous) and also have a shot in the the TT itself, or climber types who will have their shot in the uphill finishes.

In either case, pick from teams that are at the race to focus on stage wins. TT-style riders who are promising selections are Kasper Asgreen and Victor Campenaerts. Climber-break specialists include Simon Yates and Alexey Lutsenko. Riders like Asgreen, Yates, or Lutsenko are also compelling because their teams have multiple stage-win options, meaning you’ll be better positioned for teammate points.

ASO Tour Fantasy Strategies

Maximize your stage winner bonus with the right roster.

The ASO bonus function is a significant potential point booster. So your team should be tilted toward likely stage winners for various situations. Once you’ve got your GC riders selected, go with versatile breakaway threats, like Alaphilippe. And don’t forget to change your designated rider for different types of stages!

Focus on KOMs

Through a quirk, you get awarded the same points total in fantasy for the two highest categories of climb (HC and Category 1) even though it doesn’t do this in the actual race. And there are 12 Category 1 climbs this year, more than any other category. Many of them will be crossed first by breakaways. So pick a climber you think might target both breaks/stage wins and the KOM competition. A few likely options are Giulio Ciccone, Romain Bardet, and Thibaut Pinot.

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How to pick the best Tour de France fantasy team

Tips and tricks for picking a fantasy tour team that will leave your friends in the dust.

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

July is upon us, and that means the Tour de France is nearly here. It also means Fantasy Tour de France games are here, and if there’s one thing that makes watching sports even more fun, it’s watching them while you root for guys who compete on a fake team you put together.

I’m here to help you put together the best fake team you can.

You’re probably wondering why you should listen to a real-life cycling journalist when it comes to matters of fantasy sports. You may be surprised to know that before I was covering bike races, I was watching them from afar as a connoisseur of fantasy cycling. On my palmares, you’ll find a global top 10 overall finish in the Velogames Tour de France (RIP), and a few victories in other fantasy cycling competitions.

I haven’t secured a real maillot jaune, but I did win a long-sleeve jersey once as a prize for fantasy cycling. I’m like a fantasy Bauke Mollema—no blasting off the front like Chris Froome, but I’m always there or thereabouts. Lately, I’m starting to focus more on helping others.

In this case, that’s you. Here’s your guide to rocking the 2019 Tour de France Fantasy game.

The way the Fantasy Tour de France game works should be relatively familiar to anyone who has played Velogames. If you have, you can skip this section (and you can also shed a tear for the Velogames Tour de France, which was shut down by the ASO when it launched its own fantasy game) and just read the official rules for the full rundown of all the important scoring stuff and the transfer process .

For those who aren’t versed in Velogames, the idea is to select a roster of riders who score fantasy points for you over the course of the race by getting real-life results, like winning stages or wearing jerseys. You have a budget, and riders are assigned a cost, so you must be judicious in how to spend your assets.

In the Fantasy Tour de France game, you have eight roster slots, and your budget comes in the form of “stars.” You have 120 stars. Riders like Geraint Thomas and Peter Sagan cost more stars to put in your team than, say, domestiques on Pro Continental teams.

Crucially, you have the ability to transfer riders in and out during the race a limited number of times. Each transfer costs 50 “credits,” and you start with 400 credits. However, you are apparently able to rack up a few more credits by getting your friends to play — which is pretty lame if you ask me. The way I see it, you shouldn’t need real friends to succeed in this fantasy world.

Riders on your team score points over the ensuing stages based on a scoring rubric. For instance, a stage win is 200 points, a day in yellow is 50. Each day, you appoint a road captain, who scores double points for his stage results that day. On the final stage of the race, the classification-based points earned by any rider are multiplied by five to reward them for their final positions in those rankings.

That’s most of what you need to know, although I would highly recommend reading the rules for the full breakdown of scoring plus some nuances and fine print.

Core Strategy

This is probably what you’re really here for so let’s get to it.

Success in fantasy cycling is all about identifying value — spending less of your budget to earn more points. Familiarizing yourself with the scoring system is a critical starting point.

This particular game awards perhaps fewer points than you’d expect to yellow jersey contenders when it comes to the final standings. With that in mind, you may want to prioritize stage-hunters – sprinters and puncheurs alike – more than you otherwise might. The ability to select a road captain, doubling your stage points, boosts stage winners even more.

That said, you can expect certain familiar faces to do well in the various classifications, so relying on points from the consistent contenders for the various jerseys might be a bit more lower-risk than trying to pick individual stage winners.

My advice? Embrace the balance. The highest scorers will be riders who consistently finish highly on stages,  and also routinely get ahead in a jersey battle. That includes the green and mountains jerseys—they’re worth a fair few points, more than you might expect. If a rider seems like the kind of guy who could win the whacky combination classification at the Vuelta a España, he’s a good choice.

Alejandro Valverde has won the Vuelta combination jersey three times. Keep him in mind.

Once you have a grasp of the points structure, it’s all about picking the riders you think will give you the best return on investment. If you’re not great at predicting stage winners, check the bookmakers’ odds. The bookies’ favorite won’t always win, but looking at the top few names favored for a specific result is a darn good way to confirm you’re on the right track. Out-of-the-blue winners are very, very rare, except on breakaway days.

Using your transfers efficiently is the other key aspect of lineup management. Remember, you have the ability to shuffle your lineup a limited number of times.

Five Big Tips

1. Study the stages well in advance . It helps to know how many sprinters’ stages await before you decide on how many sprinters you want. Ditto for puncheurs, rouleurs, etc. This is a pretty climber-friendly Tour, so keep that in mind. TT-only guys won’t win you many points. As usual, however, the climbing stages mostly come later, so keep that in mind too.

2. Plan your transfers . This is a big one, particularly if you’re used to fantasy cycling games that don’t have transfers. Maybe save a few transfers to account for injuries, but plan to swap riders in ahead of extended stretches of stages with similar profiles. In other words, feel free to start with sprinters and puncheurs in your lineup for the first block of stages. If you followed that last tip, you’ll know that there are plenty of stagehunter-friendly days in the early goings. You can load up on climbers in the middle of the second week when the race hits the mountains.

3. Beware overpriced veterans . I’d love to end up eating my words here because he came so close to that 2016 Giro d’Italia win, but Steven Kruijswijk sure looks expensive considering he costs almost as much at 18 as Peter Sagan at 20. Kruijswijk is a consistent top 10 type but not much of a stage winner; Sagan, for two points more, is a fantasy cycling machine. Even if Kruijswijk wins the Tour, you will have picked him up by then.

4.  Acquaint yourself with the plans of riders’ real-life teams . Simon Yates is a proven Grand Tour rider, but he’s ostensibly a domestique at this race for his brother Adam Yates according to Mitchelton-Scott. Could those plans change? Sure. Will I gamble 19 stars on him when I could spend them elsewhere? No way. Plus, you can always transfer him in later.

5. Find the hidden gems . Low-cost, high-return athletes are the bedrock of a fantasy sports team. Up-and-comers often fit the bill. Kasper Asgreen, making his Tour debut, comes to mind. You’ll need a few, because you won’t have the budget for a team full of  yellow jersey contenders—which is the way it works in real life too. Unless you’re Ineos.

Naming Names

I won’t weigh on all 170-something Tour starters, but I’ll give you at least a handful of other names that stand out to me as good values like Asgreen , or less attractive options like Kruijswijk .

I’ve mentioned Sagan and Valverde , but it’s worth reiterating how valuable I think they’ll be despite their relatively high costs. A typical Sagan performance should put him on par with the winner of the Tour de France in the points department, and the guy is pretty darn consistent, so 20 stars seems like a decent price to pay. Valverde is a bigger risk because of Movistar’s whacky leadership situation, but the potential reward is great—he could very well end up in the GC battle, as well as constantly finishing highly on stages.

Michael Matthews (18 stars) is cheaper than plenty of other big names, and his versatility should translate to plenty of points. Plus, he should be riding with a smile on his face, having secured a two-year extension with Sunweb this week.

Fabio Aru  is a special case. He only costs 10 stars. As he works his way back to form following surgery, he’s a great candidate for a mid-race transfer. If he looks healthy and fit, bring him aboard for the mountains.

As for riders I’m avoiding,  Mikel Landa  comes to mind. Coming off the Giro, I don’t expect Landa to be terribly fresh, so I’d rather spend those 19 stars on, say, Elia Viviani , who seems very likely to shine in the first few stages. I can always bring in Landa later if he proves me wrong.

Thibaut Pinot  looks very expensive at 20 stars. For the same amount, you can get the guy hunting a record green jersey. Pinot’s inconsistency is not what I want for that cost

Michal Kwiatkowski is another rider I’m not in love with for this specific game. He’s one of cycling’s most versatile riders and can therefore be a fantasy monster under the right circumstances, but for the Tour, he’s a super-domestique that costs a whopping 16 stars. If Bernal, Thomas, and Wout Poels crash out, pick him up. Otherwise, pass.

Hopefully that’s enough to get you started on the road to strong Tour de France Fantasy lineup. I could maybe spend more time telling you which riders I like and which I don’t but I would rather put together my own team.

Fantasy cycling is a great way to keep yourself invested in every single stage of the race. Even if none of your favorite guys are going to do anything on a given day, someone of your fantasy roster might, and that makes it more compelling to watch whether they score points for you or not. The real goal here is to have some fun, so hopefully you’re able to do that even if your picks don’t all turn out.

Of course, it’s even more fun to win, so be sure to get your friends to join you in your league, and then crush them with your fake team.

Who are you picking, and why?

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The 2020 Tour de France fantasy cycling game has arrived! Cycling fans in the United States and Canada will be able to participate only on FloBikes by going to to flobikes.fantasybytissot.com or flobikes.com/fantasy . Both English and French language options are available.

Join Pro to watch the 2020 Tour de France live and on-demand in Canada.

There are restrictions on your team selection in the standard game format, including how much you can spend and how many riders from one team can be on your roster, but what if you removed all of that to build fantasy squads for each team at the Tour de France in 2020?

The point system is an important factor ( full breakdown here ) to keep in mind. There are a maximum of 200 points available for the stage finishing places every day, compared to 50 points for the general classification and 30 points for the sprint and mountain classifications.

We have ranked the top ten teams based on how they would perform in the fantasy game. Vote in the poll below to pick which you think is the best overall.

10. Team Ineos

This is a squad built to win grand tours, not fulfill your fantasy dreams. We only saw Egan Bernal's emergence at the top of the Tour de France in the closing days of the race in 2019, which will not contribute enough points to setup your fantasy squad for victory. Don't expect to see this roster contesting sprints or the polka dot jersey. 

While Bernal appears to be the overall leader of this squad, we've seen the aggressive riding style of Richard Carapaz on full display during the 2019 Giro d'Italia. If he's given some freedom on his new team, he could be a dark horse pick to pull in some serious points on the more challenging stages through the first rest day.

9. EF Education First

Similar to Ineos, EF Education First has put together a squad with clear yellow jersey aspirations. Alberto Bettiol however has potential to give them more options to add fantasy points outside of the mountain top finishes. 

Daniel Martinez showed great form with his recent overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine. More importantly (for fantasy owners) he registered three top seven finishes over the challenging five-day race. For the American fans, we certainly wouldn't mind seeing Tejay van Garderen add to his grand tour stage win total.

8. CCC Team

Here's a team fantasy owners can appreciate. A squad journeying to the 2020 Tour de France hunting for stage wins. Thankfully, Matteo Trentin's Milano-Sanremo crash resulted in no lasting injuries and he already returned to racing at the Tour de Wallonie and the Italian National Championships. He's a three-time stage winner at the Tour de France and will be a top contender for the green jersey. 

Greg van Avermaet has not won a stage at the Tour since 2016, but has shown strong legs through identical eighth place finishes at Strade Bianche and Milano-Sanremo. He and the rest of the CCC all-rounders should be making consistent appearances in breaks. 

Ilnur Zakarin is a proven performer at grand tours, but with his very light race schedule in 2020, it remains to be seen how he will stack up against the other climbers who have been consistently competing since pro racing returned.

7. Bahrain-Merida

For a rider who has been vocal about not receiving the attention he deserves during his time at Movistar, it feels like another slight to see that he isn't even labeled as a team leader in the fantasy game this year. Maybe further motivation for Mikel Landa to make an impact on this year's race. Sonny Colbrelli could very well  be the top fantasy performer for Bahrain-Merida. He picked up seven top ten finishes at the Tour de France in 2019, was fourth overall in the sprint classification and a mere 15 points separated him from Elia Viviani in third place and 39 points to Caleb Ewan in second. 

This is only Matej Mohoric's second appearance at the Tour de France, but the Slovenian should be a sleeper pick to score solid fantasy points as he attempts to secure a win which would make him a stage winner in all three grand tours.

6. Mitchelton-Scott

As you go through the rosters, you'll notice that some tend to be skewed towards a very specific area of the fantasy scoring. Ineos and EF are going to be all over the GC point tables while Bora and Lotto stand to dominate the sprints. Mitchelton-Scott provides a refreshing, well-balanced, group of riders who will stack points across all levels of the fantasy game. 

Adam Yates will be chasing the general classification standings as the designated team leader, but the addition of Esteban Chaves and Mikel Nieve could make this team one of the most prolific in the fantasy climbing scoring. 

In addition to the team's climbing talent, Mitchelton-Scott also arrives with Daryl Impey who picked up his first grand tour stage win at the 2019 Tour de France. The Impey and Luca Mezgec combination gives this Swiss Army knife roster multiple options for scoring fantasy points in bunch sprints and breakaway finishes.

5. Lotto Soudal

Going to sneak a dark horse pick into the top five? With no serious GC contender, Lotto Soudal would not be a popular pick as an elite fantasy roster. They key component to remember about the fantasy scoring system is that stage finishes are weighted more heavily than the overall classifications, and that's what I'm banking on with this lineup.

This team brings 34 grand tour stage wins to the start line. You could argue that certain members of this group are past their prime, but if John Degenkolb can find any semblance of his 2018 form, having two green jersey contenders will bring serious fantasy points. Even without the GC fantasy points, you will have the 1-2 punch of Caleb Ewan and John Degenkolb in the sprints, then Philippe Gilbert and Thomas de Gendt doing Philippe Gilbert and Thomas de Gendt things. Don't sleep on Lotto Soudal.

4. Bora-Hansgrohe

If you hear the words "Tour de France" and "points" in the same sentence, the first name that comes to mind will be Peter Sagan. The absolute master of the green jersey competition is going to be a force in the fantasy scoring. If anything, his 19 star valuation feels like a steal relative to other sprinters and team leaders which cost 20+. 

Emanuel Buchmann had a breakout fourth place finish in the GC during the 2019 and was in fantastic form at the Dauphine a few weeks ago, but his contributions will depend on how quickly he will heal from the injuries he sustained in the race. He could once again be a major fantasy scorer if he can make it through the first part of the event and improve through the final weeks of the race, though fantasy owners beware. In his own words "We’ll just have to wait and see how far I can make it up there.". 

As long as people stop hitting Max Schachmann with cars , we know that he can ignite a race and could be in a position to be a surprise perform in the 2020 fantasy league.

3. UAE Team Emirates

This group of UAE Team Emirates riders will be fantasy superstars at the 2020 Tour de France. 21-year-old Tadej Pogacar is making his first start at the race and all indicators point towards him being a fantasy point juggernaut. He posted twelve top 15 stage finishes at the 2019 Vuelta a Espana in his first ever grant tour, three stage wins, third overall in the GC, fourth in the mountains classification, second in sprint classification and winning the youth classification....hang on, I need to go change my fantasy roster...you couldn't design a rider more perfectly suited to score a million fantasy points if you tried. 

On top of that, you have a sprint point powerhouse in Alexander Kristoff, a high-flying Davide Formolo and depending on how much they will be asked to ride in support of Pogacar, David de la Cruz and Fabio Aru could be off hunting for their own stage wins.

2. Team Jumbo-Visma

I doubt I'll hear any complaints on this selection. Assuming Primoz Roglic has no lasting injuries after abandoning the Dauphine , he enters the race as one of the favorites. From a fantasy standpoint, we've seen that he's not a rider who's content to ease across the line at the back of the GC group. He chases stage wins and top stage finishes, which makes him arguably the most valuable rider to have on your fantasy roster, and at 22 stars, the most expensive to add to your team. 

Tom Dumoulin, by all reports, will be riding in support of Roglic, but you should still expect to see him earning solid fantasy points on the more challenging days. If Roglic's injuries do prove to be more serious, Dumoulin will slide into his accustomed role as team leader, which will further strengthen his value for fantasy owners. 

We then of course have Wout van Aert . We saw him spending a considerable amount of time controlling the front of the peloton during the Dauphine, but expect him to be unleashed on the flat days at the Tour de France. Van Aert has consistently proven that he can go toe-to-toe with the world's best sprinters in pack finishes. Before crashing out of the stage 13 ITT in the 2019 Tour, van Aert finished second on stage five and out-shone all of the peloton's fastest sprinters to win stage ten. 

While he may not be as consistently stacking up fantasy points as the sprinters focused on the green jersey because of his split team duties, Wout van Aert is an expensive add to your fantasy roster for good reason, and will still be one of the top overall scorers.

1. Deceunick Quick-Step

Did Patrick Levefre specifically pick a Tour de France roster to win the fantasy league? Probably not...but they love adding to their coveted win total, so I wouldn't put it past them. Sam Bennett and Julian Alaphilippe will be two of the highest fantasy point scorers throughout the race this year. Deceunick Quick-Step will have opportunities for stage wins and top ten finishes every single day. The supporting riders are the typical cast of strong "all-rounders". On the days when they are not lining out the peloton to set up Bennett, expect them to be making opportunistic appearances in the break contending for stage wins of their own.

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Is this the ultimate Tour de France fantasy team from the last decade?

As 2019 comes to an end, we build a squad of heroes from the last 10 years

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Probably the toughest job for any pro cycling team boss is putting together the perfect selection of talent for the biggest race of the year, the Tour de France.

Squad selection for the Tour is a tightrope walk, as management balance the demands of the sponsors, the compulsion to win, rider injuries, form and personalities, as well as the budget limitations of signing riders you might want to carry you to the top step.

While some team managers hedge their bets, choosing to back a sprinter and a GC hopeful (looking at you Jumbo-Visma), others go all-in for the yellow jersey with either one, two, or even three leaders.

But if we were to throw out all the rules and restrictions, ignore the budget and the personalities, and choose purely on Tour de France talent from the last decade, who would make the list?

Well if we were given free reign, here is what our fantasy eight-rider Tour de France squad would look like.

Thank god we don’t have to manage this lot.

The GC leader – Chris Froome

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While there are a handful of riders you would love to have as general classification leader on your team, there is an obvious choice that stands out above the rest.

Chris Froome is the most successful Tour de France rider of the last decade and arguably among the greatest in cycling history.

With seven three-week titles to his name, including four Tours de France, there is no one from the last 10 years more consistent on the biggest stage, making him the clear choice for leader of the fantasy eight.

Mountain domestique/back up leader – Vincenzo Nibali

The choice for an ultra-domestique and back up general classification leader is between two riders in my view – Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali.

Contador sits level with Froome on seven Grand Tour wins, with two Tours de France, two editions of the Giro d’Italia and three red jerseys from the Vuelta a España.

But Contador’s golden years were before the last decade, when he won both his Tours and one each of the Vuelta and Giro between 2007 and 2009.

His last Grand Tour podium was his victory in the 2015 Giro and he retired before the end of the decade.

Vincenzo Nibali continues to build his already remarkable legacy at 35 years old.

The Italian has may have fewer Grand Tour victories than Froome or Contador, but his ongoing success make him the top pick for my fantasy squad.

All of Nibali’s three-week victories come from the last 10 years – two editions of the Giro, two Vuelta and one Tour.

He is a regular Grand Tour podium finisher, most recently finishing 2 nd in the 2019 Giro, and has added Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia to his palmarès in recent seasons, which is an added bonus.

Although good luck asking a champion like Nibali to support another rider in a Grand Tour.

Sprinter – Mark Cavendish

Now for choice of sprinter in the fantasy team, again there is a clear favourite.

While arguments could easily be made for the German powerhouses André Greipel or Marcel Kittel, there is one rider who has to be included based on the sheer number of Tour de France stage victories in the last 10 years.

Mark Cavendish may have started his almost-unparrallelled winning streak back in 2008, but more than half of his 30 Tour de France stages have come since the turn of the last decade.

Since 2010, the ‘Manx Missile’ has won 20 Tour stages, while Greipel has won 11 in his career, Kittel 14.

Of course Cavendish hasn’t reached his former heights in recent seasons, but as the second most successful Tour de France stage winner in history, only four behind the legendary Eddy Merckx, not including him would be a crime.

Lead-out rider – Mark Renshaw

Every great sprinter needs a rider and friend they can trust to deliver them at the perfect moment to fight for victory, and there is none better than the legendary Mark Renshaw.

The Australian played a huge role in the success of his long-time friend Cavendish before his retirement this year.

Cavendish  and Renshaw first teamed up in 2009 at Columbia-HTC and have had phenomenal success together, with Renshaw contributing to 19 of the Brit’s 30  Tour de France  stage wins.

Renshaw said one of his fondest memories was finishing second to team-mate Cavendish on the Champs-Élysées on the final day of the 2009 Tour de France.

Time trial specialist – Tony Martin

This was a tough selection between two era-defining TT specialists, but I’ve opted for Tony Martin.

The other choice was the also outstanding Fabian Cancellara.

On paper, Swiss rider Cancellara has more career wins – 86 to Martin’s 66 – and of course has a slew of glorious victories in the Classics, most notably three Tours of Flanders and three Paris-Roubaix.

However, when narrowing down results purely to the last 10 years, for me, Martin has to be the choice for the squad.

All of the German’s four World Championship time trial victories happened after 2010, while Cancellara’s last of four Worlds wins was in 2010.

Martin also has more Tour de France victories from the last decade – five to Cancellara’s three.

However, Cancellara did close out his career with his second career gold medal at the Olympics in 2016, which is a huge result to have as your last ever competitive race.

The clinching factor however is longevity, as Cancellera retired part way through 2016 while Martin will close out the decade still racing at 34, as a faithful road captain and workhorse for Jumbo-Visma.

But I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who swapped Martin for Cancellara.

The breakaway specialist – Tommy Voeckler

Another tough choice here between to stars of the stage escape, but I’ve gone for the legendary Tommy Voeckler.

With 43 career wins to his name, Voeckler was one of the unsung heroes of the cycling world before his retirement in 2017 – the kind of rider who slowly cultivated his palmarès with prestigious wins through experience and opportunism.

With three Tour de France stage victories from the last decade, he is slightly ahead of the other heroic breakaway rider, Thomas De Gendt, who has also built up some phenomenal victories sporadically.

But the clincher for Voeckler is his performance in the 2011 Tour de France, when he led the race for 10 days and came within a handful of stages of winning the yellow jersey in what would have been a huge upset.

Voeckler may have slipped back to fourth with three stages to race, but his exploits live on in history.

All rounder – Peter Sagan

No Tour de France roster is complete without an all-rounder to pick up results when things get unpredictable and Peter Sagan is the ultimate in that mould.

The Slovakian started winning in 2010 and has barely stopped since, taking 14 Tour de France stage wins since his first in 2012.

While Sagan’s versatility him a strong contender for any Tour squad, the factor that guarantees his inclusion in the team is his rockstar status.

Sagan has a reputation as an entertainer, whether it be in the race with his exciting attacking style of racing, or his one-handed wheelies and infamous finish line celebrations, the former three-time world champion is a crowd pleaser, a rider that will definitely keep the sponsors happy while racking up wins along the way.

Road captain – Luke Rowe

Luke Rowe at the 2018 Tour de France (Sunada)

Team Ineos road captain Luke Rowe may have only ridden his first Tour de France in 2015, but the Welshman has built up a reputation as a formidable tactician despite being only 29 years old.

Rowe’s understanding of bike racing has been matched by few others in the professional peloton in the last 10 years, as shown by his control in the 2019 Paris-Nice when he helped split the race and taught rising star Egan Bernal a few things while he did it.

Also a Classics specialist, Rowe is an essential asset when things get tight and technical, successfully steering his team through the Tour de France to victory in the last five editions.

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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers.  Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.

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How to pick the best Tour de France fantasy team – CyclingTips

July is upon us, and that means the Tour de France is nearly here. It also means the Fantasy Tour de France game is here, and if there’s one thing that makes watching sports even more fun, it’s watching them while you root for guys who compete on a fake team you put together.

I’m here to help you put together the best fake team you can.

You’re probably wondering why you should listen to a real-life cycling journalist when it comes to matters of fantasy sports. You may be surprised to know that before I was covering bike races, I was watching them from afar as a connoisseur of fantasy cycling. On my palmares, you’ll find a global top 10 overall finish in the Velogames Tour de France (RIP), and a few victories in other fantasy cycling competitions.

I haven’t secured a real maillot jaune, but I did win a long-sleeve jersey once as a prize for fantasy cycling. I’m like a fantasy Bauke Mollema—no blasting off the front like Chris Froome, but I’m always there or thereabouts. Lately, I’m starting to focus more on helping others.

In this case, that’s you. Here’s your guide to rocking the 2019 Tour de France Fantasy game.

Bauke Mollema at the Giro d’Italia. Photo: ©kramon

The way the Fantasy Tour de France game works should be relatively familiar to anyone who has played Velogames. If you have, you can skip this section (and you can also shed a tear for the Velogames Tour de France, which was shut down by the ASO when it launched its own fantasy game) and just read the official rules for the full rundown of all the important scoring stuff and the transfer process .

For those who aren’t versed in Velogames, the idea is to select a roster of riders who score fantasy points for you over the course of the race by getting real-life results, like winning stages or wearing jerseys. You have a budget, and riders are assigned a cost, so you must be judicious in how to spend your assets.

Eight roster slots, 120 stars to spend.

In the Fantasy Tour de France game, you have eight roster slots, and your budget comes in the form of “stars.” You have 120 stars. Riders like Geraint Thomas and Peter Sagan cost more stars to put in your team than, say, domestiques on Pro Continental teams.

Crucially, you have the ability to transfer riders in and out during the race a limited number of times. Each transfer costs 50 “credits,” and you start with 400 credits. However, you are apparently able to rack up a few more credits by getting your friends to play — which is pretty lame if you ask me. The way I see it, you shouldn’t need real friends to succeed in this fantasy world.

Riders on your team score points over the ensuing stages based on a scoring rubric. For instance, a stage win is 200 points, a day in yellow is 50. Each day, you appoint a road captain, who scores double points for his stage results that day. On the final stage of the race, the classification-based points earned by any rider are multiplied by five to reward them for their final positions in those rankings.

That’s most of what you need to know, although I would highly recommend reading the rules for the full breakdown of scoring plus some nuances and fine print.

Core Strategy

This is probably what you’re really here for so let’s get to it.

Success in fantasy cycling is all about identifying value — spending less of your budget to earn more points. Familiarizing yourself with the scoring system is a critical starting point.

This particular game awards perhaps fewer points than you’d expect to yellow jersey contenders when it comes to the final standings. With that in mind, you may want to prioritize stage-hunters – sprinters and puncheurs alike – more than you otherwise might. The ability to select a road captain, doubling your stage points, boosts stage winners even more.

That said, you can expect certain familiar faces to do well in the various classifications, so relying on points from the consistent contenders for the various jerseys might be a bit more lower-risk than trying to pick individual stage winners.

My advice? Embrace the balance. The highest scorers will be riders who consistently finish highly on stages,  and also routinely get ahead in a jersey battle. That includes the green and mountains jerseys—they’re worth a fair few points, more than you might expect. If a rider seems like the kind of guy who could win the whacky combination classification at the Vuelta a España, he’s a good choice.

Alejandro Valverde has won the Vuelta combination jersey three times. Keep him in mind.

Once you have a grasp of the points structure, it’s all about picking the riders you think will give you the best return on investment. If you’re not great at predicting stage winners, check the bookmakers’ odds. The bookies’ favorite won’t always win, but looking at the top few names favored for a specific result is a darn good way to confirm you’re on the right track. Out-of-the-blue winners are very, very rare, except on breakaway days.

Using your transfers efficiently is the other key aspect of lineup management. Remember, you have the ability to shuffle your lineup a limited number of times.

Five Big Tips

1. Study the stages well in advance . It helps to know how many sprinters’ stages await before you decide on how many sprinters you want. Ditto for puncheurs, rouleurs, etc. This is a pretty climber-friendly Tour, so keep that in mind. TT-only guys won’t win you many points. As usual, however, the climbing stages mostly come later, so keep that in mind too.

2. Plan your transfers . This is a big one, particularly if you’re used to fantasy cycling games that don’t have transfers. Maybe save a few transfers to account for injuries, but plan to swap riders in ahead of extended stretches of stages with similar profiles. In other words, feel free to start with sprinters and puncheurs in your lineup for the first block of stages. If you followed that last tip, you’ll know that there are plenty of stagehunter-friendly days in the early goings. You can load up on climbers in the middle of the second week when the race hits the mountains.

3. Beware overpriced veterans . I’d love to end up eating my words here because he came so close to that 2016 Giro d’Italia win, but Steven Kruijswijk sure looks expensive considering he costs almost as much at 18 as Peter Sagan at 20. Kruijswijk is a consistent top 10 type but not much of a stage winner; Sagan, for two points more, is a fantasy cycling machine. Even if Kruijswijk wins the Tour, you will have picked him up by then.

Picking with your heart may be the easiest route, but it might not yield the best results. An all-Dutch team could be fun if you’re from the Netherlands, but it probably wouldn’t be the most successful.

4.  Acquaint yourself with the plans of riders’ real-life teams . Simon Yates is a proven Grand Tour rider, but he’s ostensibly a domestique at this race for his brother Adam Yates according to Mitchelton-Scott. Could those plans change? Sure. Will I gamble 19 stars on him when I could spend them elsewhere? No way. Plus, you can always transfer him in later.

5. Find the hidden gems . Low-cost, high-return athletes are the bedrock of a fantasy sports team. Up-and-comers often fit the bill. Kasper Asgreen, making his Tour debut, comes to mind. You’ll need a few, because you won’t have the budget for a team full of  yellow jersey contenders—which is the way it works in real life too. Unless you’re Ineos.

Naming Names

I won’t weigh on all 170-something Tour starters, but I’ll give you at least a handful of other names that stand out to me as good values like Asgreen , or less attractive options like Kruijswijk .

I’ve mentioned Sagan and Valverde , but it’s worth reiterating how valuable I think they’ll be despite their relatively high costs. A typical Sagan performance should put him on par with the winner of the Tour de France in the points department, and the guy is pretty darn consistent, so 20 stars seems like a decent price to pay. Valverde is a bigger risk because of Movistar’s whacky leadership situation, but the potential reward is great—he could very well end up in the GC battle, as well as constantly finishing highly on stages.

Michael Matthews (18 stars) is cheaper than plenty of other big names, and his versatility should translate to plenty of points. Plus, he should be riding with a smile on his face, having secured a two-year extension with Sunweb this week.

Michael Matthews wins stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya. Photo: Luis Gomez/Cor Vos © 2019

Fabio Aru  is a special case. He only costs 10 stars. As he works his way back to form following surgery, he’s a great candidate for a mid-race transfer. If he looks healthy and fit, bring him aboard for the mountains.

As for riders I’m avoiding,  Mikel Landa  comes to mind. Coming off the Giro, I don’t expect Landa to be terribly fresh, so I’d rather spend those 19 stars on, say, Elia Viviani , who seems very likely to shine in the first few stages. I can always bring in Landa later if he proves me wrong.

Thibaut Pinot  looks very expensive at 20 stars. For the same amount, you can get the guy hunting a record green jersey. Pinot’s inconsistency is not what I want for that cost

Michal Kwiatkowski is another rider I’m not in love with for this specific game. He’s one of cycling’s most versatile riders and can therefore be a fantasy monster under the right circumstances, but for the Tour, he’s a super-domestique that costs a whopping 16 stars. If Bernal, Thomas, and Wout Poels crash out, pick him up. Otherwise, pass.

Hopefully that’s enough to get you started on the road to strong Tour de France Fantasy lineup. I could maybe spend more time telling you which riders I like and which I don’t but I would rather put together my own team.

Fantasy cycling is a great way to keep yourself invested in every single stage of the race. Even if none of your favorite guys are going to do anything on a given day, someone of your fantasy roster might, and that makes it more compelling to watch whether they score points for you or not. The real goal here is to have some fun, so hopefully you’re able to do that even if your picks don’t all turn out.

Of course, it’s even more fun to win, so be sure to get your friends to join you in your league, and then crush them with your fake team.

Who are you picking, and why?

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Fantasy Tour de France: now with spot prizes!

You might be rueing your missed chances and botched transfers right now with the dream of walking off with first place and a shiny new bike in tatters. We know we are, not that we're allowed to win the bike of course but you know what we mean. Anyway, starting tomorrow you've got a chance to reclaim a bit of pride, as we're going to be handing out a spot prize on every stage from here to the Champs Elysées!

That's right, even if you're languishing in mid table you could stil walk off with the day's prize if you get a spot of luck. Today's top scorer was in the mid-300s in the big league and on Saturday it could be you, so get your thinking hat on and get your transfers sorted for the long, flat (ish) road to Revel.

Unless we say otherwise, the spot prize will be awarded for the highest scoring team on the stage, and the prize will be a freshly minted (so fresh they haven't actually arrived yet) road.cc tee, but we might think of some other ways to pick the winner too. If two or more teams are tied, then the following criteria will be used to determine the winner:

• The highest scoring rider
• The number of scoring riders
• The team value (lowest wins)
• The combined total scores of all the riders
• The office random number generator

Okay? so get picking. First prize for biggest points haul on Stage 13 on Saturday. We'll announce the winner as soon as we've filled in the big score spreadsheet and fed it into the cogs that make the game work.

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Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

Add new comment

13 comments.

Yup, just let me finish my tea and i'll post the weekend's winners. Two people tied on 161 today so we'll be going down the rule sheet...

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it's near, word is though that 163 is the top score today & two people got it. Think we will do a quick story every day announcing the winners

a bike? tell me its a bike!

yes. And no.

we'll send you something. won't be a tee though...

so does that mean my 150 for Handsworth CC was top for stage 12? Do I win anything?

Im gonna have to go some i thought my high 80 was pretty good going, perhaps a bit of headbutting could move my score up a bit.

A very nice touch, lads. Something other than pride (and beating my workmate) to play for

chuffy's right - 149 was second best score, tom...

who scored 300? I thought I was doing well on 149!

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Fantasy Tour de France – le guide de stratégie

Less than 3 days to go. This could be you if you win the Fantasy Tour de France in the DTTalk ProCycling League. Here is your essential strategy guide …

• July 3, 2014

This could be you if you win the Fantasy Tour de France in the DTTalk ProCycling League.

Le Tour de France starts on Saturday night, Australian time.  That is only 2 days away.  Hopefully you have:

• Registered with road.cc and set up an initial team (you can change it later).   Link
• Asked to join DTTalk ProCycling League no. 77336
• Joined the Strava group so you can enter the   DTTalk Ultimate Cycling Challenge   as well .

DTTalk Ultimate Cycling Challenge

I’ll repeat some information about the DTTalk Ultimate Cycling Challenge as some readers might have missed the last update.

I’ve invented CCA – Combined Cycling Arts.  This is a revolutionary, world-first concept, exclusive to DTTalk ProCycling League.  Riders in our league can go beyond the normal fantasy cycling competition.  You have the option to also enter the  DTTalk Ultimate Cycling Challenge (DTTUCC) .

The DTTalk Ultimate Cycling Challenge will run for the duration of the Tour de France.  In recognition of the fact that pro-cycling requires both strategy and physical endurance, the challenge will combine your fantasy points with the number of kilometres you ride on your bike during that period.  That’s right: fantasy points + personal kilometres ridden = mind.blown.

The winner of the DTTUCC will be the player who has the highest aggregate fantasy points plus kilometres ridden during the period of the TDF.  Players who want to enter the DTTUCC are required to be a strava user and join the group specifically created for this event.  The link to the strava group is  http://www.strava.com/clubs/97753  

If you are not familiar with strava – it is free to join and you can download the free app to most modern mobile phones and computers.   Link to strava

You take your mobile on your ride; turn the strava app on when you start your ride. The app will automatically record your ride speed, distance and elevation, and map your route as well.  This happens via GPS; it doesn’t require a continuous live phone or internet connection.  When you finish your ride you upload the details to the strava database when you next connect to the internet.  Your rides and km distances will then be listed with the rest of the rides in the group  – you can look at them all on your computer.  You will also see how much your rivals are riding.  I will add the fantasy points and kilometres ridden together, and publish the results.

So far uptake has been disappointing.  Which is great because I will win and become the inaugural world ultimate cycling challenge champion.  And I will talk and write about My Title  a lot.  For the whole of the next year.   So if you want to stop me you haven’t got much time left to enter.

However, this isn’t compulsory and you can just play normal fantasy in our league if you wish.

Fantasy Team Strategy

Let’s try and simplify things a bit with some basic advice.

• You have 160 credits for 9 riders.
• You should aim to start with 5 gun riders who average about 28 credits each and 4 super cheap riders who average about 4 credits each.
• You aim to have your 5 gun riders winning lots of points every stage.  So you use your 2 trades a day to swap out riders who are not going to get points on next stage, and bring in riders who will.
• You select your cheap riders with the aim of them getting some points also – i.e. getting into a breakaway and getting intermediate points, or them having a team mate that win the stages.

Now we will look at the stage analysis.  Plenty of other sites will give you brief stage descriptions and profiles  of the stages.  But what we really want to see is this table.

It looks a bit complicated so let’s break it down.  The left most column give the stage number – all 21 stages.  It also shows rest days.  This is relevant because we get 2 free trades on rest days as well.  So we will have 4 trades for the stages following rest days.

The left half of the table shows the actual scoring in the Tour de France jersey competions (i.e. the real race not the fantasy comp).

• Column 2 – the KOM column – is for the King of the Mountains competition (white jersey with red dots).  The stages with red percentages are the 12 stages that have the most KOM points available, so we can expect riders trying to win the KOM to try and break away for those stages.
• Columns 3 & 4 are for the sprint points competition (green jersey).  All stages have 1 intermediate sprint worth the same points, except for stage 20, the time trial.  The stages with the green percentages in column 4 are the 12 stages that have the most sprint points available.  These are also the flattest stages, so we can expect sprinters to concentrate on these stages.
• Column 5 measures the relative importance of each stage for the Overall or General Classification (GC) competition (yellow jersey).  The stages with the yellow percentages in column 5 offer the most opportunity for GC riders to gain or lose time relative to other GC riders.
• The measures in Column 5 are also relevant for the white jersey competition for the best young rider.

This table tells you what type of riders you want in your team at various stages.  There is a very strong message already.   You don’t need any GC riders till around stage 8 (stage 5 might effect the GC comp, but this will be GC riders losing time on a cobbled stage, not winning you fantasy points so ignore that).  Also ignore any media talking about Froome, Contador and Nibali and who is going to win the TDF.  Instead we need to concentrate on who is going to win us fantasy points in the first 7 stages.

The right half of the table shows how the fantasy points are split up in each stage (i.e the points your fantasy riders will be chasing).  The right side of the table adds up to 100% along the rows not down the columns like the left side of the table.

• The first point is that the colour coding matches up well with the left hand side.  This means the fantasy scoring is consistent with what the actual teams and riders are trying to do.  This is one of the reasons I prefer this game over other fantasy options.  If fantasy cycling is about being a virtual Directeur Sportif (team manager) then this game comes closest to that.
• Most of the point spread for each stage comes from which riders are leading the race at various points on the road in that stage (75-81%).  So this is more important than other things such as being the current leader in various jersey competitions.
• Ideally we want riders who do well on the road in each stage AND also have good position in the jersey competitions.  If you can’t choose between a few riders with similar on-road performance, pick the one with the best position in the jersey comps for added points.
• The Finish column colour coding shows the types of riders who will be contesting the finish in each stage.  Green indicates sprinters (although stage 2 will be sprinters who can climb modest hills, and stage 5 will be sprinters who can ride cobble stones well).  Yellow indicates GC riders and climbers (except stage 20 which will be GC riders and time triallers).

Fantasy Stage Analysis

We have covered some basic concepts, now we will look at just the fantasy analysis for each stage.  The table below details how fantasy cycling is scored (this is repeated from in the last article).

This is what it means on a stage by stage basis.

Some points relevant to our team strategies for the first week:

• The right hand column shows that most of the stages carry about 5% of the total fantasy race points although there is a little variation.
• Stages with pink background are medium mountain stages. The stage with green background has cobbled sectors and the stage with blue background is an individual time trial.
• Stage 1: The sprinters who finish in lead in first stage will get extra points as they will also lead the initial jersey comps.  Start your team with the big name gun sprinters.
• Stage 2 is a medium climb stage with a sprint finish – trade in allrounders/puncheurs.  Jerseys will probably change hands here and then be retained until stage 5.
• Stage 3 & 4: Use your trades to build up sprint strength of your team.
• Stage 5 has a lot of cobbled sectors.  There will be crashes and the peleton will be split up.  Trade in riders who have performed well on cobbled stages and one-day classics in the past as they will lead the race on the road.  Jersey rankings will change on this stage and then be retained until stage 8.
• Stage 6 & 7 – Use your trades to build up sprint strength, but also start planning how you will add climbers and GC riders to your team for stage 8.

That will do for now.  You get the idea.  We will continue this next week as we prepare our teams for the first mountain stages in the French Alps.

Which Riders to Pick?

Firstly, this linked article  has a good discussion of the various teams, all the riders, and what their focus will be.  It also includes images of all the team jerseys which you need to know in order to follow your riders on the TV coverage.

However, what we want to know is who to select for our Stage 1 squads.  There are probably 2 related choices we need to make:

• Pick 5 gun sprinters with 4 very cheap riders, or pick 6 lower quality sprinters with 3 very cheap riders?
• and, To Sagan or not to Sagan?  Peter Sagan is the most expensive rider at 40 credits.  If we pick him we have less money to spend on other riders.

The three best sprinters are Kittel (30.6), Cavandish (35.7) and Greipel (33.2) and probably in that order.

• Kittel and Cavandish have the best leadout teams, but Greipel ‘s team is also OK.
• Kittel is fastest but he isn’t as good as others in going uphill or navigating tight bends.  He is cheaper because he doesn’t get to as many finishes with the lead group as the other riders.
• Cavandish is the best climber and being from UK has set himself for a stage 1 win here all year.  His mother was born in the town where the finish is, and if he wins he will also wear the yellow jersey for the first time, and in his home country.  He wants it most.
• Greipel is older and coming back from injury.  I expect he will be a little slower than the others.

The next fastest group of sprinters are probably Sagan (40.0), Demare (24.6), Viviani (23.5), Modolo (16.0) and Kristoff (29.1) not necessarily in that order.   Degenkolb  (29.0) would be in this group except he is in the same team as Kittel and so I expect he will support Kittel in stage 1.  Sagan and Viviani are on the same team also, but they tend not to work together.

After this group are other sprinters like Simon, Petit, Coquard, Reza, Feillu, Fonseca, Demspter, Voss, S.Dumoulin, Van Avermaet, Van Poppel, and Bennati.

I expect all of these riders would like to win the stage, and the intermediate sprint points and also get leaders jerseys at the end of the day.  Out challenge is to try and pick 5 or 6 of the best ones within the salary cap.

If we were just thinking of stage 1 we would probably leave out Sagan due to his cost.  However, it isn’t quite that simple when we consider stage 2…

Stage 2 is much more hilly with lots of rolling climbs including some quite steep sections – see the video at the end of this article.  So we should trade out the worst climbers of our sprinters, and we should trade in all rounders – riders like Sagan (40.0), Kwiatkowski (30.8), Valverde (34.5), Gerrans (23.6), Slagter (17.4), Vanmarcke (16.6).

However, we only have 2 trades, unless we want to buy extra trades at 10 points per trade – we can’t replace all the stage 1 sprinters.  Plus then we will trade the all rounders out again for stage 3, and get the sprinters back for the race into London (stage 3).

So for me the big advantage in starting with Sagan as one of my sprinters is that I don’t have to use trades to get him in for stage 2.  Sagan is worth having in the early stages as he should pick up a lot of points – from stage finishes, intermediate points and jersey rankings.  Sagan’s contract is up for renewal this year and he is likely to change teams.  He will want to do well in TDF to increase the value of his new contract.

If you have any questions or comments post below or hit me up on  @NixTrader .  Follow me to keep up with the latest fantasy cycling info.  I will tweet when updates are added to the article.

Also forward this to any cycling mates you have, the more we have in our league the better it will be.

If you are having trouble finding any of the previous cycling articles on DTTalk you should bookmark this link – All DTTalk Cycling articles .

Only 2 days to go … we are in the final … the finish is very close … don’t miss this opportunity …

………………………………………  Video previews  ……………………………………..

Very useful to get excellent info on the type of terrain for the first 2 stages and how the race will develop as each stage progresses.  Particularly to understand why stage 2 will be so difficult.

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Tour de France Fantasy by Tissot

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Welcome to Escape Collective. Please select your language.

Please note that this is an automated translation and it will not be perfect. All articles have been written in English and if anything appears to not make sense, please double check in English.

Join the Tour de Fantasy Femmes avec Zwift Competition!

Pick your riders then battle your mates for some great prizes and bragging rights!

With the Tour de France fantasy competition nearly complete it’s likely that you didn’t live up to your full potential. You could have done better if it wasn’t for that one dud pick, right?

Now is your chance for redemption with your mates with the Tour de Fantasy avec Zwift competition!

Fantasy competitions can be complicated, but playing this one couldn’t be easier.

All you need to do is:

1. Select one rider per stage to lead your team.

2. Each rider you choose every day accumulates points towards your overall placing

3. The twist? You can only choose a rider once!

To make the competition even more fun you have the ability to invite and challenge your friends with a mini-league.

Still not sure? Check out this handy ‘ How to play cycling fantasy games ‘.

The winner of Tour de Fantasy avec Zwift main GC competition gets a prize pack that’s been generously donated by the title sponsor, Zwift:

Simply download the Escape Collective app from either the Apple Store or Google Play , and you’re all set.

How do I play along?

Everyone with a compatible Android or iOS device can participate. Once you download* the app, login using your Escape Collective account email and password. Non-members can create a new account (free, fantasy competition only).

Once logged in, you’ll be able to enter your picks, join/create a mini league, and view the leaderboards.

There’s a main league, a members-only league, and a bunch of other mini leagues — what’s the difference between them all?

The main league takes every participant’s results and ranks them in the global leaderboard. You are automatically registered in this league and all you need to do is make your picks for each stage.

Mini leagues: participants can create their own leagues or join those created by their friends. These mini leagues can be private (invite only) or public, where anyone can join.

How is the leaderboard determined?

The main (and members) league will assign points based on the stage finish, with points assigned for places 1-10. 1st – 15 pts | 2nd – 12 pts | 3rd – 10 pts | 4th – 8 pts | 5th – 6 pts | 6th – 5 pts | 7th – 4 pts | 8th – 3 pts | 9th – 2 pts | 10th – 1 pt

Mini leagues can use this leaderboard scoring (we recommend it), but can also opt for ranking by cumulative time. In leagues with this configuration, your elected rider’s time for the stage is tallied across the competition, and the lowest cumulative time wins — just like in the Tour!

Keeping up with the Tour on a daily basis can be tough, so we suggest you use the “Auto-Pick” function to populate picks for the entire tour. You can always edit these as you go.

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escapecollective fantasy Tour de France Tour de France Femmes

Cycling star Remco Evenepoel targets June return from crash

• Associated Press

BRUSSELS -- Two weeks after crashing badly in Spain, two-time world champion Remco Evenepoel said on Friday he's on track to race again in June ahead of the Tour de France and Paris Olympics.

The Belgian needed surgery after breaking a collarbone and shoulder blade in a crash while descending in the Tour of Basque Country.

Evenepoel will train at high altitude before a planned return to racing at the Critérium du Dauphiné in France from June 2-9 or the week after at the Tour de Suisse, he said in an interview broadcast by his team Soudal-Quick-Step.

He won the worlds time trial last year and the road race in 2022, and should target both Olympic events on the streets of Paris on back-to-back Saturdays -- July 27 and Aug. 3. First, he will make his Tour de France debut on June 29.

"It's going to be something special. Especially the Tour," Evenepoel said. "It makes it a bit easier to do Tour-Olympics because it's in the same country, not too far like it was three years ago to go to Tokyo. That was more difficult for a lot of guys."

Evenepoel raced in both Olympic road events in Japan. He placed ninth in the time trial, more than one minute out of the medals and trailing 2 minutes, 17 seconds behind gold medalist Primož Roglič.

Roglič was caught up in Evenepoel's crash in Spain and also will miss the one-day classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. Evenepoel won the past two editions of the storied race.

Evenepoel said the early spring injury gave him time to recover like it was a midseason break. It let him spend the Eid al-Fitr holiday last week with his wife Oumi Rayane and her family.

"That was a very beautiful day," he said. "It's better to have the injury now than in a couple of weeks. It's a bit of luck in my bad luck."