Not a great couple of races - Gorka looked good for a while but no dice
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." [PT] Xero Racing
Outstanding performance by Dillier, giving my team some big bonus points, after having had a spring where my top two picks have failed badly (Poels crashing and Moscon not performing). Had big expectations for Dillier's spring season when I picked him, but feared it wasn't meant to be when he broke his finger in Strade Bianche. Luckily he came back, and what a way to do it, first winning Route Adelie de Vitre, and now this
But for my team as a whole, we're struggling a lot, mainly due to Poels and Moscon failing. Picking Boom early as well doesn't help, but such things can always happen. Hopefully he'll step up when he's back to racing, after all he could do a good second half of the season. But I really need a big, big GT performance by Poels to fight for a top 5-6 position in our league, which feels kind of unlikely.
Just noticed how awesomely Vendrame's April has been so far, 4th in La Roue Tourangelle, 6th in Circuit de la Sarthe and 3rd in Paris - Camembert (also, Touze 5th there) makes for 126 points in 10 days.
Lotto did very well here and hence Marcovdw with the winner pick of Wellens took the glory in this event with Matt having the next best individual rider in Benoot.
OZrocker though with 2 decent picks in Serry and Theuns and hence passing matt for 2nd.
Abishek with Tratnik the only other 50+ scorer. sutty yet again some more scoring by Impey, who is having a huge year so far.
It surely doen`t happen that often that a rider wins Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race in the same season. Valgren did this and hence must be named as one of the most promising classic riders in the next seasons. At age 26 only he already has acchieved quite a lot. Already finished 2nd here in 2016 shows his strength on that terrain. Nice for Abishek to have picked him as 220 points alone would have given him the race win.
Even better than runner-up Kreuziger also was picked by him. So another 132 points. Strong showing by him after not a lot from him recently.
Quite surprising to see Gasparotto being a undrafted rider. The 2-time AGR champion with yet another podium. Might be his perfect race but not giving any points for the league.
Wellens after Brabant with another strong showing, Fuglsang, Vanendert use to be decent in such races. Hence good for ivaneurope and hillis.
One of the big surprises was Craddock. Early break and top10. At least one rider showing up in the classics for Ollfardh while sutty scores another 40 points with Impey!
Smaller startlist but as I forgot to post AGR startlist, here some bonus scoring.
Tro-Bro Leon, a mix of sprinter and classic event went to one of the rising stars of the Cofidis squad this season. Laporte really stepped his game up and have won the French classic. Nice points for jandal.
NV with Gaudin and dominox with Hofstetter also doing great while jseadog only is doing well due to the nice trio of Finetto, Backaert and Pichon that all have scored.
Startlists
Tour of the Alps
2018-04-16 - 2018-04-20
Stage 1 already ended yesterday. The very mountaineous Tour of the Alps as the former Giro del Trentino is now called, is the perfect preperation for the Giro d'Italia. Hence many of the Giro startlist will be here as well. Froome, Pinot, Aru to name the undraftable top riders.
Pozzovivo (bbl), Lopez/Meintjes (roturn), LL Sanchez (hillis), de la Cruz (jaxika), Bennett (jandal) to name the league top riders.
- 34% of the peloton are in the Fantasy League
- Top Riders: D.Pozzovivo, M.A.Lopez, L.L. Sanchez, L.Meintjes, D.delaCruz
- Watch out: G.Visconti, G.Bennett, B.Hermans, P.Bilbao, D.Rosa, A.Geniez
La Flèche Wallonne
2018-04-18
FW is the mid-week classic of the Ardennes Week. Valgren, Kreuziger, Gasparotto have shown in AGR how to do it. Here the climbs are longer and the race is harder in general.
Many undraftable riders here and hence harder for the league to score but the season has shown that this doesn`t mean anything.
Landa, Wellens, Teuns, Benoot. Lots of potential winners.
- 62% of the peloton are in the Fantasy League
- Top Riders: M.Landa, T.Benoot, D.Teuns, T.Wellens, M.Valgren, R.Kreuziger
- Watch out: A.Vuillermoz, R.Majka, B.Jungels, W.Poels, J.Fuglsang, W.Barguil, E.Bernal, G.Izagirre, M.Woods
Liège - Bastogne - Liège
2018-04-22
The 104th edition! Huge history in the world of cycling. The final of the Ardennes week. The next monument. The startlist while not being 100% accurate yet is very similar to the Fleche. Some riders from the Tour of the Alps as well head over to Belgium in addition.
- 63% of the peloton are in the Fantasy League
- Top Riders: M.Landa, T.Benoot, D.Teuns, T.Wellens, M.Valgren, R.Kreuziger, D.Pozzovivo
- Watch out: A.Vuillermoz, R.Majka, B.Jungels, W.Poels, J.Fuglsang, W.Barguil, E.Bernal, G.Thomas, M.Woods
Vanendert showed up for the Fleche Wallone being the rider for Lotto that was paced for. Top individual scorer for the league ahead of Kreuziger, who has a nice palmares over the Ardennes while Lotto`s next rider Wellens also did well.
Schachmann probably the big surprise in the top section after a strong post-breakaway finish being last man standing.
Team wise it was close but hillis with Vanendert takes teh win. Abishek being best of the rest.
The biggest event this week and the league got huge points as they did challenge the undraftable riders successfully. Not that the riders at the top aren`t strong riders, but it might have continued the somewhat surprising winners in these years WT races.
Jungels got the huge points for dominox. Very well done. But the team win was still in danger as bbl312 showed up nicely with both Woods and Pozzovivo. Surely a huge duo in form for him with the Giro in mind as well.
Formolo also had a fantastic race delivering big points for alexkr while Kreuziger yet again showed up in the top area for Abishek.
And also Henao had a good last two Ardennes classics in fact after not having been up there a lot of times so far this season.
The Lotto duo from Fleche Wallone wasn`t even weak. But point wise Vanendert and Wellens couldn`t deliver yet again in the very best area.
A good mix of league and top riders as Pinot/Froome/Aru were in the top regions as well.
Pozzovivo for bbl312 showed up nicely and gave him the individual title
roturn came closest with Lopez as top rider while Meintjes and Kudus couldn`t score enough to take the team win as ember with great depth points was rewarded. O'Connor, Bilbao and Hermans. Lots of stage and GC power here. Some great picks clearly.
Jandal`s Bennett and hillis with LLS also had solid races.
Special mention to Ciccone and alexkr00. Clearly on a great run this season with several top results. And most recently the win in the Giro dell Appennino
Tour of Croatia
Spoiler
Rider
Team
Points
SIUTSOU Kanstantsin
trekbmc
209
WEENING Pieter
baseballlover312
135
GIDICH Yevgeniy
Tamijo
115
BRAMBILLA Gianluca
trekbmc
56
GROSU Eduard-Michael
alexkr00
53
NOVAK Domen
Croatia14
44
BARBIN Enrico
baseballlover312
37
BONIFAZIO Niccolo
sutty68
36
EISENHART Taylor
AbhishekLFC
34
POGACAR Tadej
dominox
33
OWSIAN Lukasz
roturn
25
NIZZOLO Giacomo
trekbmc
18
TRATNIK Jan
AbhishekLFC
15
MINALI Riccardo
Aquarius97
15
GUARDINI Andrea
NicoVirenque
15
LIENHARD Fabian
roturn
15
VAN DER LIJKE Nick
hillis91
11
PONZI Simone
Aquarius97
5
MOHORIC Matej
dominox
5
BOIVIN Guillaume
hillis91
5
NEILANDS Krists
roturn
5
LOBATO DEL VALLE Juan Jose
baseballlover312
3
KOZHATAYEV Bakhtiyar
AbhishekLFC
0
MARINI Nicolas
alexkr00
0
KUMP Marko
Croatia14
0
SBARAGLI Kristian
Croatia14
0
CELANO Danilo
hillis91
0
DEHAES Kenny
hillis91
0
REINDERS Elmar
hillis91
0
KIRSCH Alex
jaxika
0
JENSEN August
matt17br
0
KREDER Michel
matt17br
0
BLYTHE Adam
sutty68
0
WIPPERT Wouter
sutty68
0
SHILOV Sergey
Tamijo
0
Manager
Points
Riders
Avg. Per Rider
trekbmc
283
3
94,3
baseballlover312
175
3
58,3
Tamijo
115
2
57,5
alexkr00
53
2
26,5
AbhishekLFC
49
3
16,3
roturn
45
3
15
Croatia14
44
3
14,7
dominox
38
2
19
sutty68
36
3
12
Aquarius97
20
2
10
hillis91
16
5
3,2
NicoVirenque
15
1
15
matt17br
0
2
0
jaxika
0
1
0
ember
0
0
0
ivaneurope
0
0
0
jandal7
0
0
0
jseadog1
0
0
0
Marcovdw
0
0
0
Ollfardh
0
0
0
OZrocker
0
0
0
The rather small but also HC rated Tour of Croatia saw a great opportunity for 2nd tier riders or even 3rd to 4th tier.
Siutsou still has it. Big points for trekbmc by taking the GC win after dominating the long but great mountain top finish. With Brambilla also scoring decent, he takes the easy team win.
baseballlover is following with Weening and Barbin doing well for them while Tamijo with young Kazakh Gidich also had a nice event.
Startlist for Romandie hopefully to come later. Just checked and it`s still far from correct on PCS, hence not worth it to be used as provisional.
Awesome by Siutsou, this looks like how our season will go from here, inivisible in the WT races, take our points in the small races.
Will be interesting to see how we go in the Giro though, Nizzolo clearly lacking form and probably so for Brambilla who has expressed GC goals. Siutsou however is a former top 10 and he had a great race here, albeit ahead of a weaker field.
Thanks Roturn for the update, I love seeing them so regularly!
Thank for the update roturn, but that looks awful for me
I wouldn't be surprise if in the next ranking i'm dead last. Wow, my riders haven't perform since February to say the least. Hopefully with Giro coming up things change
Just in time the full startlist for the Tour de Romandie. Good scoring potential here with lots of top riders being in the league.
Roglic (Abishek), Fuglsang (ivaneurope), Van Garderen (Aquarius), Thomas (hillis), G.Izagirre (Jandal) Bernal (jseadog) or Buchmann (NV) to name a few. Then several more as Amador, Latour, Spilak.... plus a good row of sprinters such as Viviani, Gaviria that have big chances to score.
Spoiler
CAMPENAERTS Victor
AbhishekLFC
DENNIS Rohan
AbhishekLFC
GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam
AbhishekLFC
ROGLIC Primoz
AbhishekLFC
DOMONT Axel
alexkr00
MARTIN Guillaume
alexkr00
CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS Jonathan
Aquarius97
CATALDO Dario
Aquarius97
FRAILE MATARRANZ Omar
Aquarius97
HANSEN Jesper
Aquarius97
POWER Robert
Aquarius97
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney
Aquarius97
VAN GARDEREN Tejay
Aquarius97
ANACONA GOMEZ Winner Andrew
baseballlover312
FRANK Mathias
baseballlover312
POLJANSKI Pawel
baseballlover312
ROJAS GIL Jose Joaquin
baseballlover312
ROWE Luke
baseballlover312
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd
Croatia14
GAUDU David
Croatia14
KANGERT Tanel
Croatia14
KENNAUGH Peter
Croatia14
PERNSTEINER Hermann
Croatia14
ROSA Diego
Croatia14
MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe
dominox
SIVAKOV Pavel
dominox
SPILAK Simon
dominox
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto
ember
BOOM Lars
ember
DILLIER Silvan
ember
GESCHKE Simon
ember
GONÇALVES Jose Isidro Maciel
ember
SEPULVEDA Eduardo
ember
CLEMENT Stef
hillis91
DUMOULIN Samuel
hillis91
EIKING Odd Christian
hillis91
KEUKELEIRE Jens
hillis91
THOMAS Geraint
hillis91
ARMEE Sander
ivaneurope
FUGLSANG Jakob
ivaneurope
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando
ivaneurope
ALBASINI Michael
jandal7
AMADOR BIKKAZAKOVA Andrey
jandal7
CUMMINGS Stephen
jandal7
DE GENDT Thomas
jandal7
IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka
jandal7
BRÄNDLE Matthias
jaxika
DUPONT Timothy
jaxika
VIVIANI Elia
jaxika
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
jseadog1
CIMOLAI Davide
Marcovdw
KRUIJSWIJK Steven
Marcovdw
ROSON GARCIA Jaime
Marcovdw
VAN POPPEL Boy
Marcovdw
VERONA QUINTANILLA Carlos
Marcovdw
MEURISSE Xandro
matt17br
SELIG Rüdiger
matt17br
BUCHMANN Emanuel
NicoVirenque
GOUGEARD Alexis
NicoVirenque
MOLARD Rudy
NicoVirenque
BASKA Erik
Ollfardh
CARTHY Hugh
Ollfardh
LATOUR Pierre
Ollfardh
VERVAEKE Louis
Ollfardh
MINNAARD Marco
OZrocker
ROLLAND Pierre
OZrocker
DE TIER Floris
roturn
KUDUS Merhawi Gebremedhin
roturn
DOWSETT Alex
sutty68
HAMILTON Lucas
Tamijo
HOULE Hugo
Tamijo
HOWSON Damien
Tamijo
STORER Michael
Tamijo
THOMAS Benjamin
Tamijo
ATAPUMA HURTADO Jhon Darwin
trekbmc
CANTY Brendan
trekbmc
GRIVKO Andriy
trekbmc
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas
trekbmc
PLANCKAERT Baptiste
trekbmc
ROSSKOPF Joey
trekbmc
Spoiler
Aquarius97
7
Croatia14
6
ember
6
trekbmc
6
baseballlover312
5
hillis91
5
jandal7
5
Marcovdw
5
Tamijo
5
AbhishekLFC
4
Ollfardh
4
dominox
3
ivaneurope
3
jaxika
3
NicoVirenque
3
alexkr00
2
matt17br
2
OZrocker
2
roturn
2
jseadog1
1
sutty68
1
- 60% of the peloton are in the Fantasy League
- Top Riders: P.Roglic, J.Fuglsang, T.VanGarderen, G.Izagirre, G.Thomas
- Top Sprinters: E.Viviani, F.Gaviria, T.Dupont
- Watch out: S.Dillier, E.Bernal, E.Buchmann, S.Kruijswijk, P.Latour, S.Spilak, M.Albasini,M.Frank
Great rides by Woods and Pozzovivo in the past week for us. I needed them to perform and they did. Can't complain. Like last year, we've fielded a few too many noteworthy domestiques and not enough guys that consistently score for themselves, so we have to take these opportunities.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Not too sure about my own team. Probably had higher expectations in the spring races.
- Miguel Lopez with 331 points and now to the Giro is on par. Had bad luck in 1-2 races and could have done better hence.
- Henao with 246 pts is below par I`d say. He used to score most in early season races. TdU, Paris Nice etc. but this year he didn`t have the best record there and only showed up around ~10th in the last two Ardennes classics, hence hopefully the trend continues, otherwise not the best 2nd pick.
- Meintjes (48), Kudus (63), Moreno (19)...can`t say their performances this year stood out really. #3, #6, #9 picks and hence expectations were higher as they all showed a lot more in the past. Former two are young and might focus else and hopefully can grab bigger in the GTs.
- Haig at 5 points only in the last update also a rather under average #4 pick. He showed some better form in April races, hence should climb a bit.
- Roelandts as #5 pick my best next to Lopez more or less and did exactly as I expected. Around his 2017 score with the classics mainly done.
- Senni and Geoghegan Hart not really improved really. First had a strong 2017 in some races, hence I had hoped to see him making another step. Not yet though.
- Next such as Preidler, Pardilla, Fernandez, Walscheid, Thwaited were all gambles anyway in mid draft area. So far not having shown a lot but might come here and there.
- And late some positive surprises. Neilandts at 95, Koshevoy at 72 and in especially Owsian as last round pick at 135 having shown a bit here and there and hopefully continue over the season.
With Romandie done this weekend, next week should see a new ranking update. If CQ is out on Monday, then this would be the perfect time for me to do one. Most likely won`t be online though and hence on Wednesday.
Then also the Giro startlist. By the look of it, lots of league riders there with great chances such as Viviani, Lopez, Pozzovivo, Woods, S.Yates, Wellens, Dennis, Chaves, Oomen, S.Bennett, G.Bennett...
Our Giro squad is weird, not sure why Nizzolo isn't racing, so we have Siutsou, a former top 10 in excellent form though he should be a domestique for Pozzovivo, Brambilla, who was not that great in Croatia but should be Trek's GC leader for some reason (think Eg will outshine him), Vendrame should do nothing, Canty should join breakaways (and be the best ) and Atapuma should be on domestique duties for Aru, though he'd be interesting if he got into breaks.
That leaves Debusschere and Planckaert, normally I'd discount them, but this sprinting field is exceptionally weak, Vivianni, Bonifazio, Van Poppel and Mareckzo are the peak of it, so perhaps they'll be the largest portion of the points I get here.
Far from 100% accurate as less than 10 teams have announced their squad yet.
But should be okay for a first discussion and as trek has started, here you go with some more input.
More will come later once final.
Interestingly from the Giro starters the top 20 only include 6 undraftable riders. Hence huge potential to score big for the league.
Those 6 are Froome, Dumoulin, Pinot, Ulissi, Aru and Lutsenko.
Must admit, having 9 riders on the provisional makes my expectations high.
In especially seeing the names and the role in the team.
- Miguel Angel Lopez: Hopefully in form for the GT top 5.
- S.L. Henao Montoya: Former top 10 here. Might be one of the last 2 helpers for Froome and hence might be decent in the GC as well.
- Luis Meintjes: Should be Dimension Data`s leader. Not sure what to expect after his season start. But on paper can finish in the top 10.
- Jack Haig: Might have a chance for a breakaway as seen in the Ardennes. But with S.Yates, Kreuziger, Chaves and Nieve I guess he might mainly be helper, in especially if the team has a rider in the lead or the podium.
- Ruben Fernandez: Usually helper tasks only in most races. Can do decent though. Movistar without a big GC leader though. Might have some freedom. That said, who knows if Betancur, Carapaz, D.Quintana or Valls suddenly are in top10 area.
- Krists Neilands: Looking forward to this really. Wildcard riders in a GT are always nice to have and while Plaza/Hermans might be in late top 10 to top 20 he should still have lots of freedom.
- Georg Preidler: Pinot one of the top favourites and hence lots of helper tasks I assume. Though might have a chance here and there to go into the break.
- Manuel Senni: As said, far from his 2017 BMC form since riding for Bardiani. Ciccone is their GC rider clearly. Senni might have freedoms though and hopefully doing something.
- Jürgen Roelandts: No idea really. Not longer a real sprinter and hence even in this field likely not showing up a lot in the finishes. Though the lineup with Drucker, Roelandts, Ventoso and Bevin is interesting and they might try something on harder sprint stages. Not sure about Dennis, but otherwise no huge GC leader and hence lots of freedom potentially.
Just Bennett really for us, but in Anton especially I'm hopeful for breakaway surprises.
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." [PT] Xero Racing
roturn wrote:
Must admit, having 9 riders on the provisional makes my expectations high.
In especially seeing the names and the role in the team.
- Miguel Angel Lopez: Hopefully in form for the GT top 5.
- S.L. Henao Montoya: Former top 10 here. Might be one of the last 2 helpers for Froome and hence might be decent in the GC as well.
- Luis Meintjes: Should be Dimension Data`s leader. Not sure what to expect after his season start. But on paper can finish in the top 10.
- Jack Haig: Might have a chance for a breakaway as seen in the Ardennes. But with S.Yates, Kreuziger, Chaves and Nieve I guess he might mainly be helper, in especially if the team has a rider in the lead or the podium.
- Ruben Fernandez: Usually helper tasks only in most races. Can do decent though. Movistar without a big GC leader though. Might have some freedom. That said, who knows if Betancur, Carapaz, D.Quintana or Valls suddenly are in top10 area.
- Krists Neilands: Looking forward to this really. Wildcard riders in a GT are always nice to have and while Plaza/Hermans might be in late top 10 to top 20 he should still have lots of freedom.
- Georg Preidler: Pinot one of the top favourites and hence lots of helper tasks I assume. Though might have a chance here and there to go into the break.
- Manuel Senni: As said, far from his 2017 BMC form since riding for Bardiani. Ciccone is their GC rider clearly. Senni might have freedoms though and hopefully doing something.
- Jürgen Roelandts: No idea really. Not longer a real sprinter and hence even in this field likely not showing up a lot in the finishes. Though the lineup with Drucker, Roelandts, Ventoso and Bevin is interesting and they might try something on harder sprint stages. Not sure about Dennis, but otherwise no huge GC leader and hence lots of freedom potentially.
Woah, with already Lopez, you could score hugely, though Meintjies, Senni and Roelandts should all be pretty good and I expect really big things from Haig. I have my doubts about Froome as well (not really too based though), but Henao would end up awesome too if Sky's usual Giro luck strikes. You could be in for something big.
I hope you are right. I might be a bit less optimistic though seeing how your Mentjes/Senni have performed so far this year. Haig is up to 77pts though with Pais Vasco and LBL. Still not sure with the lineup in Giro though.
A shame that in May I basically am not at home on any weekend but the first...hence the best stages can only be checked on PCS afterwards.
roturn wrote:
I hope you are right. I might be a bit less optimistic though seeing how your Mentjes/Senni have performed so far this year. Haig is up to 77pts though with Pais Vasco and LBL. Still not sure with the lineup in Giro though.
A shame that in May I basically am not at home on any weekend but the first...hence the best stages can only be checked on PCS afterwards.
Yeah, I remember Senni being someone I was targeting, so it's quite disappointing and unexpected to see him scoring so lowly, usually a step down to PCT for a rider like him means a step-up in CQ points.
That's a shame you'll miss so many stages, at least you're in the right time zone, I guess though.
De Brabantse Pijl
Amstel Gold Race
Tro-Bro Leon
Tour of the Alps 
Tour of Croatia
Tour de Romandie 
) and Atapuma should be on domestique duties for Aru, though he'd be interesting if he got into breaks.
