Here is your official entry form:
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Let the Fantasy stress begin!
Many of you have already begun crunching the numbers and making provisional selections for your Fantasy TdF team. A clarification about doping violators after receiving the first question: if your rider somehow manages to get themselves in trouble prior to the start of the TdF, then like any good DS you are allowed to substitute another rider prior to the start. If however, your rider gets caught with their hand in the EPO jar during the TdF, then you are down a rider, just as if they had crashed out. The question of whether the rider's results stand will be handled as follows: a loss of points for the stage they tested positive for and any subsequent results after that stage, but all prior results will stand.
Here is your official entry form:
Here is your official entry form:
The 2009 Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France!
The Fantasy TdF starts this Saturday! This post will serve as the official rules. I am the final arbiter of all rules disputes. I reserve the right to modify or add rules as needed, but I will not do so in an arbitrary or spiteful manner, but only out of a need for clarity.
The Team
You have a budget of $2500. Rider values for all riders listed with bettable odds at Unibet and their values (as determined by their odds for winning each jersey competition and their odds of winning Stage 1) can be found here. Any rider not listed has an assumed value of $100. You must have a team of 5 riders and you may not go over your $2500 budget.
Scoring
Stage finish - every rider will be given points for their placing each stage. If 200 riders start a stage, 1st place will receive 200 pts. while 200th place receives 1 point.
Stage win - stage wins will be determined by the aggregate score for your five man team's points on that days stage. There will be 50 pts. for 1st, 30 pts. for 2nd, and 10 pts. for 3rd.
Jersey competition - you will receive points for each day that one of your riders leads a jersey competition. Yellow jersey - 100 pts. , Green jersey - 75 pts., White Jersey - 75 points, Polka Dot Jersey - 75 points.
I will now steel myself for a flood of questions for clarification. This evening, I will post an entry form for you to fill out. Entries are due by 8 am, July 4th. Good luck! Bon chance!
The Team
You have a budget of $2500. Rider values for all riders listed with bettable odds at Unibet and their values (as determined by their odds for winning each jersey competition and their odds of winning Stage 1) can be found here. Any rider not listed has an assumed value of $100. You must have a team of 5 riders and you may not go over your $2500 budget.
Scoring
Stage finish - every rider will be given points for their placing each stage. If 200 riders start a stage, 1st place will receive 200 pts. while 200th place receives 1 point.
Stage win - stage wins will be determined by the aggregate score for your five man team's points on that days stage. There will be 50 pts. for 1st, 30 pts. for 2nd, and 10 pts. for 3rd.
Jersey competition - you will receive points for each day that one of your riders leads a jersey competition. Yellow jersey - 100 pts. , Green jersey - 75 pts., White Jersey - 75 points, Polka Dot Jersey - 75 points.
I will now steel myself for a flood of questions for clarification. This evening, I will post an entry form for you to fill out. Entries are due by 8 am, July 4th. Good luck! Bon chance!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Clear and Sunny
The rain has finally eased up and with the sunshine, riders have appeared for both the monday and tuesday night rides. The monday night ride saw 11 riders with most of them coming on one of their first group rides ever! Big thanks to Joan Boike for pounding the electronic pavement and emailing everyone she could think of to come out and ride! The tuesday night ride had 22 riders and looked to be a great setup for the race simulation ride that it is advertised as! Thanks to everyone for coming out and making the rides what they are.
The Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France (LCFTdF) gets cranking this weekend! With a scheduled start of July 4th, you will be able to submit a team through midnight of July 5th. There are much different rules for this year's race and I will be posting them in the near future. The broad strokes of the competition are: you will have a team budget and riders will have a value based on their odds as listed on Unibet.com as of July 1st. Your team must consist of 5 riders. All finishers of a stage will be awarded points (if 150 riders start, 1st place will receive 150 points and last place will receive 1 point), bonus points will be awarded for stage wins and leaders of jersey competitions. Start studying!
A reminder that the Saturday group ride will be at 7am instead of 8am due to the increasing temperatures and feedback from members of our cycling community.
The Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France (LCFTdF) gets cranking this weekend! With a scheduled start of July 4th, you will be able to submit a team through midnight of July 5th. There are much different rules for this year's race and I will be posting them in the near future. The broad strokes of the competition are: you will have a team budget and riders will have a value based on their odds as listed on Unibet.com as of July 1st. Your team must consist of 5 riders. All finishers of a stage will be awarded points (if 150 riders start, 1st place will receive 150 points and last place will receive 1 point), bonus points will be awarded for stage wins and leaders of jersey competitions. Start studying!
A reminder that the Saturday group ride will be at 7am instead of 8am due to the increasing temperatures and feedback from members of our cycling community.
Friday, June 19, 2009
"I'm melting! Meltiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg!!!!!"
Given that the weather has decided to switch up a bit and ease up on the deluges of the past few weeks, and move more into the arid heat generally associated with the desert, we must ride smart! The 8 am start for the saturday ride should be cooler than the midday heat, but to keep from feeling the blast furnace of the noon day sun, we'll have a 2 hour option. We will do the Cup 'o tea loop for a change of pace.
Don't forget the National T-bucket convention will be in full effect in downtown Lenoir tomorrow!
Don't forget the National T-bucket convention will be in full effect in downtown Lenoir tomorrow!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday ride update
If the weather turns as ugly as it looks on the radar, the bike portion of tonight's Bikes,BBQ&Blues ride will become the BBQ&Blues affair sans Bikes. If no ride, we will meet at Sister Futs Cafe at 6pm. See you there!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
in the works
Lots of happenings are just on the horizon. The nefarious, nay devious rules that will comprise this year's Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France are nearly complete. The only hint I will give you is that you should study up on the odds being given over at Unibet.com. This year's grand prize is a pair of pimpin' Specialized sunglasses! Second place will receive a pit kit's worth of Pedro's cleaning supplies and 3rd place will receive some lowly prize to be named later. The lanterne rouge will also be appropriately recognized and rewarded for their lack of effort!
We are in the planning stages for a "Day on the Greenway" event. The plan is for us to have all of the greenway bike models that we carry available for test rides at the Lenoir greenway. Everyone who takes a test ride will receive a free raffle ticket for a very cool Specialized Globe 3 spd greenway bike. You will also be able to purchase raffle tickets at the event with all of the proceeds going to Caldwell County Pathways, the awesome people who have worked so hard to make the greenway happen!
Every now and then, someone comes into the shop and asks if we can help them sell something. We usually don't do this, but someone came in with about 4 pairs of very nice tubular wheelsets. The wheelsets were race quality back in their day, but they would now qualify more as training tubulars or cyclocross wheelsets. Come in, check 'em out and make an offer!
After 2 years of drought I hate to say it, but I'd kind of like it to stop raining. It seems like I spend a lot of my free time cleaning up water, contemplating where water is going to drain to, and generally cogitating upon the very nature of fluid dynamics. Needless to say, my basement is trying really hard to evolve into a cistern. I wouldn't really mind it all that much, but we have these really pesky electrical appliances down there too and seems like they wouldn't fare well if even partially submerged. I've been using this waterstop cement to fill cracks and leaks. If you've never used this stuff before think super glue, but more cementy. A lot more cementy. You mix it up and then you have 30 seconds of time bomb disarming terror as you try to shove into place, hold it and hope against hope that you didn't just cement your hand into the basement wall. So far, so good, but it hasn't gotten any easier with practice. Add this stress to the anxiety of water tunneling under our new driveway and you can get a sense of the dread we experience when we hear water hit the roof. The tunnel under the driveway is actually coming along pretty nicely. In fact, I'm thinking about charging admission and conducting some cave tours. How does Lenoir Caverns sound?
We are in the planning stages for a "Day on the Greenway" event. The plan is for us to have all of the greenway bike models that we carry available for test rides at the Lenoir greenway. Everyone who takes a test ride will receive a free raffle ticket for a very cool Specialized Globe 3 spd greenway bike. You will also be able to purchase raffle tickets at the event with all of the proceeds going to Caldwell County Pathways, the awesome people who have worked so hard to make the greenway happen!
Every now and then, someone comes into the shop and asks if we can help them sell something. We usually don't do this, but someone came in with about 4 pairs of very nice tubular wheelsets. The wheelsets were race quality back in their day, but they would now qualify more as training tubulars or cyclocross wheelsets. Come in, check 'em out and make an offer!
After 2 years of drought I hate to say it, but I'd kind of like it to stop raining. It seems like I spend a lot of my free time cleaning up water, contemplating where water is going to drain to, and generally cogitating upon the very nature of fluid dynamics. Needless to say, my basement is trying really hard to evolve into a cistern. I wouldn't really mind it all that much, but we have these really pesky electrical appliances down there too and seems like they wouldn't fare well if even partially submerged. I've been using this waterstop cement to fill cracks and leaks. If you've never used this stuff before think super glue, but more cementy. A lot more cementy. You mix it up and then you have 30 seconds of time bomb disarming terror as you try to shove into place, hold it and hope against hope that you didn't just cement your hand into the basement wall. So far, so good, but it hasn't gotten any easier with practice. Add this stress to the anxiety of water tunneling under our new driveway and you can get a sense of the dread we experience when we hear water hit the roof. The tunnel under the driveway is actually coming along pretty nicely. In fact, I'm thinking about charging admission and conducting some cave tours. How does Lenoir Caverns sound?
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Round wheels, chopped pig
Tonight, we're trying to start a new bike community tradition. Come out for the Thursday night ride (the usual mid-tempo, mid-intensity, no-drop funfest of spirited camaraderie) and then plan on hanging out in the courtyard and enjoying BBQ (or anything else) from Ffuts! Since they have secured the proper permits, Ffuts is now utilizing the courtyard to serve food and beverages. Invite the family to join in on the fun, even if they weren't on the ride! This is one more way we would like try and foster a sense of bike community amongst the two wheeled folk in our area!
Ride, eat, drink, be merry! What could be better?
Ride, eat, drink, be merry! What could be better?
Monday, June 01, 2009
Winning don't have to be pretty...
I remember when I was a little kid, watching Richard Petty win some NASCAR race. I was with my grandfather who always talked about Petty being the greatest driver ever. We were watching one of those big old console TVs that was built to look like a piece of furniture. When you turned it on, it took a few seconds for it to warm up and give a decent picture. But on this day, the picture was mega-bright, like only color tv in the '70's could be and I distinctly remember watching Petty take the checkered flag as he slid across the line upside down after hooking up with some guy coming out of the final turn. Sometimes, winning isn't pretty, but it's still a win.
Denis Menchov hit the deck hard and slid across the wet cobblestones like the neighborhood kids on their slip 'n slide. You know that hurt, but Menchov had zero time to even acknowledge the pain. The running sprint in cycling shoes across wet cobbles chasing a sliding bike was proof positive of athletic prowess alone. And then, the hero of the story, THE MECHANIC, comes sprinting out of the still braking team car, spare bike in hand, directs Menchov on to it and gives him a push. All in 10 seconds flat. Just goes to show, your friendly local bike mechanic may just save your butt one day...
While dramatic, the crash would not have been the way anyone would have wanted to see Menchov lose the Giro. But not to worry, he put time into DiLuca even with the crash. And I just sat staring at my computer screen, amazed at how I could be watching the whole thing live...
The winner of this year's Luna Cycles Fantasy Giro d'Italia is our very own Charles "the smaller" Bennett with 1440 points total. On the second step is Jack Brown with 1366 points. Rounding out the podium is Max "the ghost faced killah" Dyer with 1179 points.
Start prepping for the Fantasy Tour de France. Now that school is done, the rules system will get much more complex in an effort to make the race even more competitive! Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)