Great to see more people signing up. We'll need quite some people to make it work.
I'll think about the route but it doesn't have to be decided right away. Keeping the spirit of the real '73 route seems a cool idea and Puy de Dome is hard to resist. However creating a route from scratch also seems neat.
Oh and small detail - don't forget:
1. to include Type of Rider besides biography.
2. this is alternate universe. There may never have been a Coppi and Bartali for example
Say what, this is amazing. Great to have you back! In CX:AND I always thought so that it'd be fantastic to have a road version and you have many times openly considered it, so I am glad that you get it out of your system this way. It's a great concept really and I look forward to some of the finest reports. I'll surely create some characters.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Since he turned professional five years ago, he has won 34 races/stages including the world championship in 1971. He also won the points classification twice and 6 total stage wins in Tour de France. If it all goes his way, he will once again be the race's fastest man, if it ends in a sprint.
Type of Rider: Very fast man in a sprint, can however be cocky and messy at times. Hate climbing and cold weather. If he loses several sprints he might begin to get more desperate and turn out to become a danger in a sprint (Abduzhaparov).
Oh it's extremely great to see you back here Ian, and then you come back with such an amazing idea too.
I'll sign up somewhen later when I have more time - is there some kind of deadline for sign-ups yet?
Kirchen's second account according to Spilak23, 21-07-2016 17:16
Name: Greg McQuinn
Nationality (region): Yorkshire, Great Britain
Age: 34
Height: 1.84
Weight: 69
Specialty: Mountain, Time Trial, Tactics
Weakness: Ego, Age, recent injury, acceleration, his teammate
Biography:
Former four time Tour de France-winner, heralded as "God save the Quinn", Greg McQuinn was the first british TdF winner in history and has brought a hype to the isle unbeknownst before.
McQuinn was born and raised in Yorkshire, which has been become the epicentre of the recent cycling boom in the british 70ies. However Greg McQuinn has actually started cycling himself rather late in his late teens. Soon he found himself in the amateur ranks and then becoming a pro in a US team. Since his mid-twenties, McQuinn has become a regular contestant for high placings in the Grand Tours, both achieving success at Il Giro and La Vuelta. However of course his first hallmark was already at age of 23, when he won his first le Tour and hit jackpot straightaway. Right from there, Greg was the hottest thing you could imagine in cycling, both his talent and ego called him out as a star and magnet to the masses. The year after, he repeated his performance. Both years, it was a rather close fight to his adverseries, however his time trial eventually gave him the edge.
In between several years of of disappointment, injuries and close misses, McQuinn got his third and fourth win of le Tour too. Time has passed though, but the many defeats didn't mean that he lose track of his target. To write history. To be remembered as an all time TdF-champ.
The british superstar had to deal with a traumatic experience towards the end of his career though when he got hit by a car and had to quit the previous season. Now, as a result, McQuinn has missed most of last year, and his form has been rather lacking so far. However Greg has also made himself a name to be on form when it matters the most and the brit has promised to there, to be present.
Unfortunately, much to his dismay, McQuinn's team has hired a new future superstar while he was gone, and now McQuinn will have to face his adversaries both outside and inside his team, whilst he aims for his fourth win of le Tour.
Whilst McQuinn is known to be one of the strongest riders still when it comes to the mountains and time trials, he also had issues with his ego, liking to play the boss a bit too much. Whilst in his youth, he was rather temperamentful, he now has the experience to know the consequences of most of his decisions during a race. This gives him mostly an advantage on the playing field. Unfortunately, this experience comes at the price of his age, and Greg is definitely missing the acceleration of his earlier years. Additionally the recent injury of last year, has cost him quality and it remains to be seen if McQuinn has reached his old level. However Greg is more determined to put all his faith, experience and power into this Tour de France, which may be his last, but could definitely end up being his swan song.
Edited by Shonak on 13-02-2017 23:27
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I won't participate cause it's just a time in cycling I'm too far away of, but I'll check the thread out by the time. Good luck to all guys, and have fun Ian! Great to see you here again
Name: Sim Tompson
Nationality (region): English
Age: 27
Height: 181cm
Weight: 69kg
Specialty: Hills, Attacks, Digging Deep
Weakness: Tactics, Overly Ambitious
Biography: Grew up riding and racing with a loal club in the North of England. But he made his mark on the Track, competing at top level Amateur events and winnings Golds in a variety of events and almost breaking the Hour Record at just 20!
At 21 he moved to Brittany to pursue a Road career. Dominating the local events he caught the attention of various teams, and cemented this burgeoning reputation with 4th place at the World Championships after a dogged display of grit. Swiftly he was signed up and thrown at the late Autumn races, holding his head high.
In his second season, at 22, he finished inside the Top10 of Roubaix as well as various stages in early stage races. A rough debut Tour followed but coming through impressively to 29th with some strong rides and gaining a lot of respect. A crash at the Worlds pretty much ended the season.
A win in the Ronde followed and rocketed his status yet higher. Although a late crash at Roubaix forced a season of discontent missing many of his target races before recovering to a Top10 at the World Championships.
The upwards trajectory continued the next year. Claiming a Stage win at the Tour, and due to previous breakaways, claimed the Yellow Jersey for a day. Crashing in the Alpes ended his assult on the Win, falling back to 6th place by Paris. The time of the Brits was well in force.
A team change kept the momentum going. 9th in MSR, 3rd in Ronde and then an epic ride to victory in Bordeaux-Paris. Sim had truly shown his capacity in both Classics and Stage Races and as such was becoming a big name, although not as big as McQuinn.
Last year Sim finally added MSR to his collection, winning a four-man sprint finish. Illness plagued his Tour assult, limiting him to 14th place in a year he felt he could have won.
Sim Tompson delayed his season start slightly. Aiming to do something special and win a Grand Tour, the Grand Tour, the Tour de France!
Type of Rider: Well, it should be pretty clear who Sim Tompson is modeled on. So i don't need to say more
Name: Vincenzo Castelli
Nationality (region): Napoli, Italy
Age: 27
Height: 1.72
Weight: 57kg
Specialty: Mountain, explosiveness, resilience on the bike, protection by team
Weakness: Time Trial big time, flats, raced Il Giro, little experience at le Tour, troubled mind at times
Biography:
Called La Scorpion del Vesuvio due to his explosive accelerations and deadly stings as well as his proud heritage of Naples, Castelli comes of the height of another tremendous Giro campaign, culminating in his second Giro triumph.
Now with big words and huge ambitions, Castelli wants to succeed at making the impossible come true, achieving the double of Il Giro and le Tour. Unfortunately, Castelli has almost exclusively raced on italian soil so far. His tifosi love him for it since he and his italian team frequently and almost exclusively show up at the italian races, going from south Italy in February to the Tirreno and Milano in March, reaching peaks at Trentino and of course Il Giro, and calmly enjoying italian fall in some spring classics, at the end of Il Lombardia. So indeed, Castelli is as much as homegrown talent as he is a lover of Italy. But for anyone comes the time when you leave the domestic scene behind you and have to go for the big one.
It is just in Castelli's nature that the ever so hard fighter wants to make his first mark outside of Italy at le Tour as the reigning winner of Il Giro. However his lack of experience on foreign roads and unknown mountains will mean that Castelli has a severe disadvantage. Additionally, the known fatigue of Il Giro can hamper his ambitions early. Castelli has said that a peak in third week is necesarcy for him to make his dream come true, will he achieve that just in the nick of time? The stress and prestige of le Tour is even greater than at the Giro and Castelli may struggle to deliver on his own high expectations just because of the stressful italian media coverage.
Be that as it may, on the bike, Castelli is a fighter and climber as pure as they come, bouncing back and rather imploding than giving in. This had led to some memorable defeats, even losing his first chance at Il Giro in the last kilometer on of the last stages, where he couldn't move forward anymore. Times, and he, have changed though, and whilst such events can happen again, Castelli is by now one of the most experienced climbers in the pack, helped by an ever-so loyal squad, ready to protect him throughout the race. With Castelli's debut at le Tour, it is also to be expected that the italians have come to France for good.
-----
In claiming Pantani before too late <3
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Ollfardh wrote:
Oh crap, only jsut saw this. Please tell me signing up tomorrow is still ok?
Sure there's still plenty of time left. I hope to start putting the route together next week.
I have a week off work starting monday 27th February so perhaps that'd be a good time to get everything in order and start this. So that's still over a week and a half.
This is also a good time to start submitting teams. Feel free to fill them with some bots already, too. Would help me tremendously if I didn't have to make a +100 peloton of bots all by myself.
Yeah whatever so he's not based on a legend of the sport or Armstrong Type of rider added for Caputta btw
Name: Sebastien Chardefaux Nationality (region): France (Rhône-Alpes) Age: 25 Height: 176cm Weight: 63kg Specialty: Local knowledge (Alps), all-around climber - be it a speedbump or a 20km alpine climb he's very very good Weakness: Hype - The French want him to be their next big thing but he's not going to be the new French GC dominator. Inexperience - especially on cobbles, where he's only ever ridden Dwaars door and that was this year (he did come 63rd though, finishing when others didn't) Biography: Born and raised in Quintal at the base of Le Semnoz, it was clear from a young age Sebastien would be as good as his father - then as he got older and started to ride mountain passes in the Alps, it became clear that he wouldn't. He'd be better.
Sebastien comes from the cycling-mad Chardefaux family, who have been in Quintal for generations. His father was an amateur cyclist who failed to turn pro who lived through his sons a bit when they were in their early teens - however, luckily he realised what he was doing before Sebastien hit the U23 scene. His younger brother Pascal was perhaps even more prodigous at an early age but when they raced in areas that weren't high mountains all the time it became apparent Sebastien had a slight edge by virtue of being more rounded, though Pascal can still crack him when the ascent nears 20km.
Sebastien was very good on the U23 scene when he did arrive, with highlights including a stage win and 2nd on GC in the Tour de l'Avenir in 1970 and 5th overall the year before. Since his move to the pro ranks for the 1971 season he's rode the Vuelta once, in '71, where he worked for his team leader who would eventually come 4th, the Giro once, in '72, where he was 17th overall again in service of a GC favourite, as well as 4th in a MTF, pacing his leader to the line, but his breakthrough came in the Tour of that year . With no real GC hope he took the reigns for his team when the mountains came, despite losing big time in a windy flat stage he fought to 9th overall on the last stage, as well as winning a with a last 500m attack in a stage not too far from Quintal, from a select group containing three of the top 5, including the maillot jaune, in a hilly finish after a medium mountain stage saw a multitude of attacks.
Elsewhere he's been comptetitive in a multitude of KoMs (including 2nd in Paris-Nice this year and 1st Dauphine last year) and top 10 positions in other stage races and has taken a stage win in the Dauphine for two consecutive years (where he finished 13th and 5th on GC respectively), as well as a few others in smaller races. His sole pro GC win was earlier came earlier this year at the Tour du Haut Var against some good opposition. In classics, he was 16th in last year's Giro di Lombardia and took two top 10s in this year's Ardennes classics.
Sebastien is a very professional guy, a soft-spoken, humble, yet ambitious rider who is plagued by the knowledge that he's not French Cycling Jesus that the fans want for him to be - there's a lot of French climbers around but he's one of the golden boys right now, be that title right or wrong, for better or for worse.
Type of Rider: Extremely able puncheur but really excels in the mountains, be it up or downhill (where he possesses an excellent technique). Never-say-die and fighting style is a big asset as well. Working on his time trialling ability but it's not something he did much of, at least on the flats, until he was 17 or 18.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Name: Willie Hira Nationality (region): New Zealand (Bay of Plenty) Age: 27 Height: 181cm Weight: 74kg Specialty: Committed - will give 110% no matter the situation, Toughness - will never give up Weakness: Outsider - as a) a New Zealander and b) a coloured rider, it can be tough for him to make his way in the peloton is some areas, acceleration Biography: Born in Tauranga, Willie was a very good MTB'er for most of his youth but as a teenager was inspired, as we all are at some point, by a legend on the road: for him it was Greg McQuinn's feats in France (though Willie never had the build to replicate those) and he became a convert pretty quickly.
The path to European racing is non-existent for a Kiwi and he was lucky to be noticed riding for a small Australian team after winning most of the youth titles in New Zealand. He was 25 when he turned pro but has shown his worth at his team, riding hard from Roubaix to La Vuelta, Liege to, this July, the mountains of France. He's one of the first coloured cyclists in the Tour de France startlist and proud to be - though he prefers to let his legs do the talking. A cool head on tough shoulders, he's exactly who you want to help you out on any terrain. That is, except when the climbs go for more than a couple of kilometres.
His best results in terms of solo sucess have generally been from the beakaways he has entered with a couple of stage top 10s and a second place in a small classic this year, his biggest result really was 26th in De Ronde after sticking with a group full of spent domestiques.
Type of Rider: Tough guy domestique, isn't quite built for Alpine or Pyrenean stages but is a very capable domestique elsewhere. lacks a bit of kick but more than makes up for it with power.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
I want to thank you all for your interest.
However, there aren't nearly enough participants and helping hands to make this interesting enough and do-able for me so I'm afraid this project won't make it to the next stage. Maybe someday in the future but for now it'll have to suffice to simmer around in my brain from time to time.
Those signed-up: Appreciate your enthousiasme. Thank you.
Ah well Was quite excited but a TDF peloton sure needs a hell of a lot more interest than a CX field I guess Was a great idea Ian but not meant to be right now, hope to see you around sometime here again
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
I can post one or two riders when I have the time. Will it be enough then?
Also you can count on me on route making.
There are also sites for stage making like La Flamme Rouge, Cronoescalada, Tracks4bikers etc.
Edited by Forever the Best on 25-02-2017 11:37
(Pays de la Loire)
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
Type of rider added for Caputta btw
New Zealand (Bay of Plenty)
Was quite excited but a TDF peloton sure needs a hell of a lot more interest than a CX field I guess 
