End Of The Season

How about this for enrique ????????

I like to imagine Enrique as someone famous that has it in for cyclists and enjoys winding them up on forums like this. Maybe he's Jeremy Clarkson. Or Lance.

I don't think Enrique is a real person. I believe it is a computer program capable of generating 229 winning teams in a billionth of a nanosecond. Its main purpose is to keep people amused whilst the game is updating. ENRIQUE actually stands for Enormous Number of Road.cc Incredibly Quirky Update Excuses

On a personal level I have little or no interest in the WWC and, due to working shifts, multiple races over weekends / days are a nightmare for me to catch deadlines, but that's my concern to sort.

My only major gripe is the multiple races at one time which , if you want to do well, takes ages to prepare for. Otherwise everything is cool.

The US races and the WWC hold the least appeal to me. Would like all of the Classics to be in there.

Yup its nice to be able to pick different riders, and its from the American races I had Thuens in my ToB purist team, as id seen how well he had done. Also as many of the riders in those races are cheap it means much more varied teams from a normal WT race where differences in points scored can be very close due to potentially picking 3 or 4 riders from a small group and the cheaper riders being more like filler riders, which is less of the case in those races.

Or maybe that just highlights a potential for slight change in budget calculation? But again as startlists are not uniform and involve constant change and differences in depth its a difficult balance for all races without it becoming alot of work, especially when races need to be opened with just partial startlist info available

American races are fun. One of their charm for me is that I'm forced to check out the guys from the smaller American teams, and go through the results of all those races that are never really visible for us (Gila, Beauce etc.), but that are nonetheless there. And then, all of a sudden, two normally isolated cycling landscapes come together in the American races, and you see all these American guys you know only/mostly by name mixing it up with all the guys you usually see in any race on TV. (The reason for this, of course, is that organizers wisely keep away from world tour status, so they can invite so many of the smaller local teams). For me, that is always a thrill

My major disagreement from what has been said above is re. the American races. I love them and think they should be in the game, certainly when wanting more classics in autumn, when we've just had such a busy week with classics, Vuelta and ToB all in one monster weekend. ToC is when the Giro is, USA pro is when the Vuelta is, and if you saying they detracts from the GT, shouldn't we then axe ToB too then?

Having said all that won't there be even less overlap with proposed real life calender changes?

Also re. rider values, im not sure how easy it is to tweek or employ an algorithm for that as it is all based on game data, so if a rider races and wins straight off, thats all the game data he has. (i don't know any more than that on hoe exactly it works) But im sure its already something to be considered on Dave's list

Never even saw this questionaire....but then i tend to delete the e-mails without looking at them to be honest.

I've just done my questionnaire. Rated loads highly and made following comments - anyone agree?

Re races:
More Autumn Classics. We could have one race every weekend. Plus all these Italian races on at the moment. It would be good if we could pack in a lot at the end of the year.

Scheldeprijs in spring classics. I love a flat track bully challenge

Women's races - can we have some stage races - Tour of Britain, La Course. This could be in place of some of the women's world cup. The tour of chongming Island is a waste of time. I would like women's races to stay in the game, I just feel you picked the wrong ones

US races are of a poor standard and the USA pro challenge detracts from the Giro. I would ditch these for more European races

re gameplay:
Riders who have not had 12 previous races, but won in their first few (yates, Formolo, Hofland, Coquard), get incredibly high costs in their next race. It would be good if they could build up gradually.

re leagues:
a table of points per stage in my mini leagues.

Highs - got to be my FS Criterium win.

Lows - Quintana crashing out of my purist Vuelta team which meant i had no hope of getting anywhere near the top of the leaderboard.

Thoroughly enjoyed it but fingers crossed there is much less bickering next year.

Meaningless when certain people who know better make it up as they go along...

I got an email a week or so back...

PS - just filled in my questionnaire about the game for next season. I said I loved it, which I do. The changes I suggested were...

1) More women's races (Paris, London, Flanders, Worlds);
2) Opening the races earlier with provisional startlists;
3) Differentiating between Purist and Standard in one-day comps eg Spring Classics (maybe 5 transfers per race).

And a fourth I forgot to mention should've been - sort out when prizes get sent out, and keep us informed! Still no sign of my rucksack from Romandie and no reply to my last email about it. Not an issue for me, but might turn off some people.

I won something!!!

This is my first year at Fantasy Cycling and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I started with the Vuelta 2013, and who would have thought that I would win the Grand Tour event just 12 months later. I believe I can thank Enrique for the final result, but hey, I am stoked just by even making the top 10. It was just one of those races where everything went to plan, and we all know that doesnt happen very often. I have learned a lot about road racing over the last 12 months, and am still learning everyday.
Thanks to everyone who plays (from the land down under).

Thoroughly enjoyed it as usual but disappointed with my own results.... Next year I intend to pick riders who don't fall off as much.... Respect to Nibali and Yorkshire but I thought the TdF was a let down due to the tumbles... Highlight for me has been Contadors Vuelta, speed of his recovery has been astounding.... Still think Sky were mad and also a little disrespectful not taking Sir Brad to the TdF, and the cycling gods seem to agree as Sky are looking a little ordinary at the moment... I hope next year that G is given a more prominent role in the team....

Been lots of fun....and generally did better than last year which is nice....shame it's the end if the season, but then again it means that the classics aren't far away. I always get very excited about Paris Roubaix time!

I've really enjoyed this year - been a bit more relaxed about the game and that has helped my overall enjoyment of the races as a spectator!

Lows - Early bad luck with purist picks crashing in the first couple of stages (Meersman in Paris-Nice, Tejay in Romandie, Dan Martin and Rodriguez in the Giro), I was lucky enough to avoid that kind of thing last year. And then Froome and Contador in the TdF but I'm sure that was pretty common.

Highs - 4 Forum Scorum wins (I think) including the women's world cup, none of which I watched. Still without a Grand Tour stage win in three years, mind. (Having said that, Sky didn't win a stage in a Grand Tour this season either...)

Outside the game, my favourite race this year was probably Nibali winning in Sheffield, I'd love to see a one-day race on that terrain, it really did look brutal the way they raced it so hard. Or maybe Stannard in the Omloop H-N. And van Avermaet's attacks made Flanders really memorable this year as well, I'm hoping to go over to Belgium for that next year.

Gerrans for the Worlds and Rodriguez again in Lombardia?