Fantasy Cycling Teams - 2014

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Last modified: Tuesday, 8 May, 2018
 

As has become our custom, Lisa & I will be adding to our interest in this year's professional cycling season by following the fortunes of our own fantasy cycling teams. We've been doing this since 1997. We select our teams on the basis of each rider "costing" his total UCI ranking points earned last season divided by fifteen and rounded to the nearest five, with a minimum cost of twenty points and a maximum of 200.  We allow each team 900 points on this basis, with nine riders to be selected. No more than two riders in each team can be selected from the same real life trade team.  Throughout the season we score our riders performances in all the major races according to the points system adapted from one used by Roger Hughes in his Fantasy Cycling League. The tables below summarise the fortunes of our teams throughout the season.

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For this season's line-up, Lisa had to make two changes to her Ready Steady Riders due to the suspension of Michael Rogers and the failure of Samuel Sanchez to find a trade team place before the start of the new season. To boost her presence in the sprints, she's taken on the sensation of last year Marcel Kittel and, in hopes of improving the stage race performance of her team, added Canada's Ryder Hesjedal to the mix.

Steve had hoped to keep his entire Nightowlers team from last year but the last minute suspension of Alessandro Ballan left a gap in the line-up so Steve's added Rick Zabel (son of the great Erik who Steve selected for many years) to his team.

Here's hoping for a more equal contest than last year's massively one-sided affair. For a blow-by-blow account of our riders' scoring rides, see the accompanying blog.

See below for Ready Steady Riders' results.
 

N i g h t o w l e r s
Rider	Period Scores								Total Score
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Joaquin Rodriguez	33				8	15	33	12	101
Philippe Gilbert		53	13	5		15		49	135
Mark Cavendish	16		15	3			13		47
Thor Hushovd	4								4
Vincenzo Nibali			10	17	120				147
Rick Zabel		3	5						8
David Millar									0
André Griepel	9		5	10	10		20		54
Peter Sagan	50	8		10	36		6	2	112
Total	112	64	48	45	174	30	72	63	608

R e a d y   S t e a d y   R i d e r s
Rider	Period Scores								Total Score
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Alessandro Petacchi	5	9	3						17
Richie Porte	15				1				16
Marcel Kittel	10	20	11		36		14	3	94
Daniel Martin		18					15	49	82
Tom Boonen	12	9	6	2			3	11	43
Alberto Contador	60	35		25	4		84	5	213
Thomas Voeckler	1		2		6			13	22
Ryder Hesjedal	1		12				8		21
Fabian Cancellera	24	40			4	2	5	9	84
Total	128	131	34	27	51	2	129	90	592

See above for Nightowlers' results.