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Spring Classics 2015
The next major competition I am looking at getting organised for is the Spring Classics 2015. I would also like to get some prizes organised for a mini-league if it is still possible to run a standard mini-league competition.
Is anyone able to tell me how the Spring Classics will run this year?
For example:
- Will they be the same 12 races as last year, which will mean Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will be first on 22nd Feb ... that's less than a month away.
- Will it be possible for players to run a mini-league for this with just standard scoring on its own, i.e. not standard + purist + whatever scores all added together as aggregate league "scores".
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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235 comments
I'm not sure who you are talking to. I've never played a purist game and never will - even though I am a paid up premium player and was last year. Why would I want to look at an old thread about one? I'd rather stick a fork in my eye.
You purist guys are like a cult. I understand how the game works perfectly. I am not interested in the subjective beliefs of purist players about a type of game I do not intend to ever play. It simply isn't relevant to me.
Thanks, TER, so we can expect Scheldeprijs and Brabantse Pijl?...
Truly lovely! 
.
No peeking then!
You might get a head start on your planning! 
But if you happen to look, just post some values we might find interesting... 
.
Look, I think you're right
Looking at the winners and all Top 20's from last year's races, without looking at Brabantse Pijl and Scheldeprijs, these are the only riders who scored a Top 20 in any race in the competition who belonged to a 'smaller' team:
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Sonny Colbrelli Bardiani CSF 6
Davide Rebellin CCC Polsat Polkowice 13
Baptiste Planckaert Roubaix Lille Metropole 13
Maxime Vantomme Roubaix Lille Metropole 19
Yves Lampaert Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise 4
Tom Van Asbroeck Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise 6
Zico Waeytens Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise 15
Jelle Wallays Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise 16
Olivier Chevalier Wallonie - Bruxelles 16
Jean-Pierre Drucker Wanty - Groupe Gobert 6
Bjorn Leukemans Wanty - Groupe Gobert 9
Laurens De Vreese Wanty - Groupe Gobert 16
James Vanlandschoot Wanty - Groupe Gobert 20
Some of those are to be expected, like Leukemans, Bardiani and Rebellin... Others have moved on to bigger teams this year, Drucker and Lampaert I think
... But I keep thinking (God, I'm even boring myself now! 
), what's wrong with getting one more transfer a race to switch out some of your fillers, mid level riders and 3.0 riders? 
Let us fish for more points every day in the breakaways, etc...
We all know the game will be won on who makes the most accurate 'Big Boy' swaps... Why not let us fish a little with 'Little Boy' swaps, too?... Hmmm... do I whine like a little boy?... 
I do... But thanks for the exhange and the info... 
Oh, God, I laughed
I'm not boasting about anything, i'm trying to get across that if you put the work in you usually get the results. In cycling luck is always a factor regardless of amount of transfers, just look at stage1a of the Andalucia race with 2 big crashes.
Also there's a saying ......."lies, damn lies and statistics".
Also your later comments about not wanting to do purist races and eye sticking in my opinion shows that you dont have the interest in spending time doing your homework for races and only want a lot of transfers to make up for that lack of interest
Well, granted, but still, it's not having a lot of transfers just to 'wing it', in my mind... I think we want to make very (!) informed choices of who to transfer in... You're doing your planning to set up the team 'without having to make wholesale changes', we'd like to plan on having a few more transfers so our research into who to bring in pays off, and we just want more transfers for this competition because it's so different from the others... I'll take nothing away from you for the amount of research you do... I just think it's unfair for you to qualify 'wanting more transfers to bring in different riders for this particular competiton' as 'disinterest in doing research'... I just don't think that's true... If you ask me anyone who plays this game with a passion must do a lot (!) of research! Including those of us who would love to get a few more transfers for this competition...
I saw it, and I think Dave saw it, He will be deliberating on what is best to do, but whatever he decides will be set out in the email he intends to send out before the classics explaining all the rules
Well said.
"by the way you are wrong again" ... really? How pathetic. I made no comment whatsoever about which game you enjoyed more. Why would I care or want to pass an opinion on something that irrelevant to me?
As for Chiv suggesting my numbers were wrong or I didn't answer questions "10 posts back" - I have no idea what he is on about in his posts, so I ignore them.
That's a nice idea...
TER, with regards to this, I have no idea how the 'back end' works, but is it an option to just load all the riders on all the teams involved in these races and let us worry about what start list and for what race, , if any, they're on?...
Just having the rider values to look at is inmensely valuable, as Nix, says, to plan out for the whole competition...
.
I don't remember who it was in another thread who mentioned it 'd be nice to have all the riders listed, even if they were 'grayed out' so they can be selected even if they're not on an active game start list...
Got it. Just replied to you... Let me know you got it, ok?...
I think it'd be something nice to offer, perhaps even 'better' than the idea of a 15 or so rider 'mega-team' real (!) Purist... I don't know... I've always thought the Classics are such a strange beast that more people like to play them as 'separate' races rather than as a 'competition'... screw the planning, they're not tied in any way to each other except that they occur in a certain time frame, are well-known and occur in more or less the same region... But there's no commitment or requirement to bring the same riders to every race and you're not expected to participate in every race...
In that respect they are more akin to the Spanish Trofeo de Mallorca series than to any Grand Tour...
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I wish we could do polls on the forum...
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I respect that and, honestly, though it wasn't 'Real' Purist, well, the Purist competition did (!) have unlimited transfers last year... I think many people felt like they were basically playing 2 teams, of course, rather than 2 different competitions...
.
But I think the only ones that complained were the ones who wanted a "real' Purist team...
I still don't get why we can't have a 'Real' Purist... either 2 'Bonus' Purist competitions, one for the Cobbled Races and one for the Ardennes, in fact, because of the similarity maybe have Strade Bianche grouped with the Ardennes, nah, too complicated, but roster-wise pretty similar...
or one that covers both halves... I guess like TER says:
.
But, honestly, I think the better option for Purists would be 2 separate competitions. I don't think Standard players play much Purist anyways, I mean, I don't...
But why not do the 'separate' competition? That'd be nice!... But maybe it's just a lot of work to set up and manage...
Im sure Dave will take it on board, just think for now Dave wants to keep it simple, with one classics, the way he has outlined, especially with plenty of stage racing too between now and the end of the classics
TER, I'm trying to figure out how much room to leave for the 'Big Boys' like Sagan, Cancellara and Valverde and the others above... Is the intention to have them all up by Friday, or is there a chance they'll be added after the competition starts?...
Dave, can you upload all riders, or all teams, so we can see the value and be able to select ''fillers' from more than Omloop?... Alternatively, TER, can you ask Dave for permission to post all rider values for all teams in a .txt, .csv or .xls file in a zip file here on the forum? It'd be nice to be able to look at all rider values before forming a team... Dave, is the option to list all riders on all teams possible, so we can build teams with riders that may not ride Omloop but ride another race down the stretch?....
Thank you, Dave!
So the Rider Ranking page will only display the next upcoming race?... Can we have all the riders displayed there, too?... Or could you post a zip file with all of them so we can see them all on one page as opposed to looking at them one screen at a time or searching rider by rider?...
Belletti is starting both races this weekend and Bernadeau is starting Kuurne obn Sunday... Have I misspelled their names or do they have to be added?... Thanks....
Nix if you make the assumption that 1900 people play the game then the 840 playing purist would be about the split I'd expect for those paying to play vs free to play (43% for a premium product is above avg ) so I don't see how that argument ties up when it comes to std vs purist as every paying player will play every comp during the early part of the season , we pay because we want to get the most out of the game
To clarify then "Enrique/Nix"
Im sure that points out who i was addressing the post towards.
I play both im not a "purist guy" and always have done
The reason i pointed you in the direction of an old forum purist thread was purely to illustrate the fact that your numbers games you have been quoting simply dont ring true if you look at the setup and rules that were imposed in that game
ie no transfers rewarded the people willing to do the research looking for the value riders to get points during a classics race
Btw the comment about wanting to stick a fork in your eye is more telling on how you feel about transfers than all of your numbers put together
That's not fair, stumpy... I think the man started the thread precisely because he wanted to prepare for the races... I don't know if you can 'see' this, but one can do a lot of research precisely (!) to make more informed transfers, not just to build the 'better team for the long run'... The only discrepancy I see is you (!) want to do research and swap 2, maybe 3, or so 'Big Boys' in and out every day and we do research trying to figure out who's the better - 'smaller'- the less 'well known' rider we hope can bring in for particular races in this competition if we have enough transfers to also (!) swap out the 'Big Boys, like you would
... If I had to guess, I'd say Nix does just as much and maybe more (!) research than you or I... 
What????
.
True, but if you're going uphill, wouldn't you want another set of gears?...
Hahaha ok I had to respond to this as its hysterical.
If you properly read all the posts rather than just your own you would see I made no mention of answering any questions 10 posts back
Anyway I'll let you carry on winding yourself up now ......aussies and these forums
TER, did you just load every rider on every team that's scheduled to race or is there any chance riders will have to be added in during the competition?...
Maybe you could keep the 'next' competition info and riders there and put another table behind it labeled 'All Riders'?...
BELLETTI Manuel....add please, thx
You've brought tears to my eyes, Dave... very generous of you... That, and a lot of riders up and 5 days to plan! Thanks!
.
TER, right now I count 180 riders in the competititon, which I gather is the riders on the start list for Omloop. By competition start, will all teams be up, or is there a chance riders will be added after the start of the competition because you're waiting for rosters to be confirmed as opposed to uploading full team rosters?...
.
Again, thank you, Dave...
Yes, please!
And (!) Bernadeau is also (!) riding both (!)
Any c hance you might load them tonight?... Please?... 
Even if it's just to see their values?... 
Found Belletti in today, thanks! Can you upload Bernadeau and Demoitie, too? Thanks...
Eh? As Chiv said the vast majority of paying players will do both. Because they can. Those not paying will have to choose and the obvious one is the standard as you get to play with your team.
No-one is saying that Purist is more fun in this whole thread. The debate is about the number of transfers with some wanting a complete overhaul every game and some wanting less transfers which makes strategy more important and rewards knowledge. And still allows 3 transfers per stage for late news/withdrawals/form etc.
Haha, a purist cult member can't even accept that I have a valid reason for not wanting to play purist games.
"There's a saying ......."lies, damn lies and statistics" " ... Yes, and it is a refuge for cultists who don't want their self-serving beliefs challenged by facts.
I don't play purist because in my view it is fantasy cycling lite - a dumbed down version of fantasy sports to enable people to play lots of games with the least amount of effort and the most amount of luck. That said if others want to play it why should I care - just don't talk to me about it.
Here is an indisputable rule of logic for you ...
Factors that a common to both options are irrelevant in a comparison of which is the better option.
So, while it is true that .... no matter what form of fantasy cycling you play, the more research you do, the better outcome you will get, compared to someone who does a lot less work (over the long term and over lots of games).
Because that factor is common to all options it is completely irrelevant in trying to compare and evaluate the options.
Further, only someone that your signature phrase applied to, would propose it as a reason to invalidate someone else's preference.
Err...."Haha, a purist cult member" suggests that you believe that i enjoy that game more. However you will no doubt come back with some other comment.
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