Fantasy Vuelta 2010

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Who would imagine that picking my fantasy team of riders for Road CC Fantasy Vuelta 2010 could be so exhausting? I feel mentally and physically drained. Almost as if I have completed stage 8 of this year’s race which heads up to Xorret de Catí via some 20% gradient roads.

The premise of the game will be familiar to those who have participated in fantasy football or fantasy cricket competitions. You have a certain amount of money to select members of your team and earn points depending on their performance and the performance of their team mates.

The folks at Road cc have come up with some appropriately complicated scoring structure which probably deserves considerable thought. Fortunately there is a flexible transfer policy which allows participants to swap players in and out with relative ease. I might have got the hang of this by week 3.

You get significant points for having a rider who wins a stage and also do quite well if you have a rider whose team mate wins a stage (so I have chosen Cavendish and one further HTC Colombia rider as I predict Cav to do well). Having riders in the team that wins the team time trial will push you up the leaderboard (which explains my inclusion of SKY and Garmin riders).

King of the Mountains might be profitable, although the scoring for this is the most complicated. I played it safe and chose David Moncoutie. He has a good track record in the KOM competition at the Vuelta and rides for Cofidis who have a point to prove after the Tour (where they were the only French team not to register a stage victory). I’ve also found room for my old Latvian friend Gatis Smukulis who is currently riding the Eneco Tour.

Captaining my squad and leading the GGB GC charge is Luis Leon Sanchez. He is a local boy who should be aggressive on home soil. His team, Caisse D’Epargne, won the Vuelta last year so know what it takes to win. He is not the favourite but for some reason I think he is a nice option.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the team does and to updating you on Team GGB!

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