[Closed] Vuelta a España 2021 - STW FANTASY TOUR OF SPAIN

Thanks nbt.
This time I'm going to concentrate more on picking a better team than the one I had for Le Tour, it was dire.

This time I’m going to concentrate more on picking a better team than the one I had for Le Tour, it was dire.

It was not as bad as mine!
As a result I am refusing to play any fantasy stuff like that ever again.

Ineos have an incredible team...

Yeah they had an "incredible team" at the Tour and got very little to show for it! (well OK, a third overall isn't bad but it was below expectations).

I'm in

Probably the only time I will appear in the top 5!

am in

certainly had to choose Odd Christian Eiking

Almost scared to choose a team because in the last 3 grand tours I’ve picked a cheeky outsider who then went on to crash.

crazy legs - the odds are with you this time. Go on you know you want to.

I normally lose at least 3 riders, which is bad from a team of 9.

Doesn't look like there's any coverage on ITV4 sadly

I'm in for some more mid table mediocrity

Thanks for setting that up nbt!

Coverage is on Quest (Freeview 12).

I too had to pick Odd Christian Eiking...

Coverage is on Quest (Freeview 12).

Thanks for that, we're away and I'd got to the point o seeing how much extra data would cost so I could watch the GCN highlights, but they're broadcat by Quest so all is good. not as good as Ned & David, of course, but at least I can watch

My award winning team has been picked. There maybe some tweaking later.
Change of team picking tactics, not just picking riders I like. :0)

I've just had rethink on my team and made some fairly fundamental changes. I don't usually do very well so maybe this will make a difference...

OK. Have picked a team of South Americans as far as I could just to see how they get on. It turns out there's a lot of good Colombians & Ecuadorians in the race, but I couldn't get one in every spot so I've hat to pick Adam Yates to make up the numbers. If you think about it though, Bury and Bogata are pretty much the same place.

Anyone struggling to pick a team leader could try this handy tool:

https://twitter.com/procycletrumps/status/1426093411682197507?s=20

>Bury and Bogata are pretty much the same place.
not as much of a drug problem in Bogota 😉

But that spinner hhas just given me an idea for ANOTHER change...

Have picked a team of South Americans as far as I could just to see how they get on. It turns out there’s a lot of good Colombians & Ecuadorians in the race

This is interesting...
https://twitter.com/SportsOrla/status/1426108214504996868

Havent done one of these for a few years!

Anyway team Cider in Sport is flying the flag with all the brits plus a couple of jonny foreigners for good measure. Looking for some big scores here!

I actually took a look at the stage profiles before putting a team together (shock horror!) and there's a lot of 'hilly' days but not loads in the way of high mountain finishes. Still, will probably be at the bottom anyway - I've chosen Dick Dastardly as my DS this time, let's home none of my team get caught cheating!

Another last minute rejig. I should stop

I'm in - no tactics whatsoever (I'm still not too sure even how points are scored, after many years of mediocre scores 🤣🙄😳 )

Spent some time last night rejigging and ousting some riders and replacing with a mixture of favourites and point scorers.

Still time to join the fun today until 4pm.

Last minute...I'm in.

Fazzini - you appear to have two teams.
Or, are you 2 different people with the same name?

FFS - Quest awesome as ever - for some reason they're showing 'Border patrol Poland' or some such shite.

The TV coverage is absolute shite... I set recordings on 2 sets of Eurosport and 1 on Quest and all the recordings were of something else and not the Vuelta. They can't schedule to save their lives... I've now gone through Eurosports schedule and set all the so called 'Vuelta' slots to record... let's see what shite I've recorded in the morning.

My germans having a great start so far.

lets hope I don't see half my team go home in the end like in Le Tour.

Looks like today could be interesting - if the forecast is correct wind should influence things before a classic Vuelta rampa finish.

https://www.ciclismointernacional.com/vuelta-a-espana-2021-stage-6-preview/

For those struggling to keep up don't worry team Pie is currently on the overall podium out of more then 16K entries so even a bit behind you might still be doing great.

Impressive team Pie

absolutely shite coverage.... impossible to know what's happening

Not watching live but yesterday's footage of the final climb were terrible. Decent helicopter footage but hardly any camera motos on the road and the one they did have in place was oscillating between filming the grass verge and the sky!

Fair play team pie, serious points total.

Yes, excllent work there by team pie

not a good day in the vuelta though

Hugh Carhty has not quite been on form, he;s climbed off today

Valverde hit a pothole at speed as he attacked on a descent and went sliding off the carriageway over the edge. He's tried to ride on but it's no good, he's going to call it a day very soon. Shame, this might be the end of his career

tbis shows the immediate aftermath - he did try to ride on after this
https://twitter.com/lavuelta/status/1428728143959973894

toxic jims greenwash have imploded in a moviestar stylee!

I was in the crowd at this mornings start from Puerto Lumbreras 🙂

I’m glad I got off my ass and rode over to watch em go by then caught up with the final Velefique climb on the tv.

I did a 15 mile ride there and back on flat and it was 29c, doing the ride they did today must have been grim!!.
(Luckily thou it was cooler than last weekends 40c+)

I’ve not been up Velefique yet…

Roglic is a nut job! when bravado is greater than ability (or rear wheel grip)

certainly had to choose Odd Christian Eiking

Woohoo!

Roglic down again....

I almost went for a team of scandi riders instead of south americans. Damnit.

Fazzini – you appear to have two teams.
Or, are you 2 different people with the same name?

@Bunnyhop is that not allowed? Apologies if not!! I've always run 2 teams since I first started on the fantasy cycling teams thing. That was before I realised there was an STW league too. Usually one team is my actual picks, and the other is just a random decision of close eyes and select. Needless to say, Team Blunderbus is doing exactly as I expected - absolutely bugger all 😉

having said that, my 'proper' team is rather poor too haha

All is fair in love and war
I've given up on the league, I'm just enjoying the race coverage. Though some days, the highlights have been AWFUL. Last Friday when they showed a load of stuff up to about 13km to go with a bunch out front, then jumped to 3k to go with Roglic leading Mas and Yates chasing, we had to turn off the highlights and watch the full coverage to find out wtf happened

Fazzini - you are allowed to do whatever you like :0) Its all about fun.

GCN appear to be mixed up with the Italian commentator.

it's fair to say Tom is no Michał ! 😉

I opened up the standings for the first time in ages just now and noticed that my colombians were doing quite badly. Then Bernal attacked (and MA Lopez has followed) so I am going to spend the rest of the day believing that I can telepathically control bike races.

Bernal might not have much choice on how fast he descends ! 😉

will they all get mugged by Yates ?

You've been Jumbo'd

For me Yates needs to leave Ineos, it doesn't feel as though he's in the correct team for his type of riding. He probably could have got up the rd sooner, but for Bernal.

Not so sure about that, he 'only' managed 10s or so on Sunday.

If Rog had not gone with Bernal (and then smoked him) it might have been different. Probably not given Rog is so much stronger than everyone else. Shame he crashed in the TDF.

think that was the slowest final 3km i've ever seen in a bike race

Good stuff from Lopez, he won on col de la loze in tour de France last year too which was similarly brutal finish if not quite as steep

I did a virtual race up that on RGT earlier this year, the last 2km were hell!

Toys out the pram today in the race and in my house when GCN crashed 2km from end!

crazy stage from start to finish 🙂