FanPost

Podium Caf? Tour De France Virtual DS Challenge!

[editor's note, by chris] Welcome to the first annual Podium Caf? Tour de France Virtual Directeur Sportif Challenge! Follow the instructions below, put together your own team, and watch them ride away for the glory of... YOU!

First, many thanks to Clydesdale for taking this on. Just goes to show, you can make a lot of friends if you know how to use Excel. This is a really great contribution to our site.

Second, obviously we didn't just invent fantasy cycling, although we are the first to recognize and remove the creepy implications of "fantasy" from the name. The biggest such game in town is the CyclingNews Fantasy (ew!) Le Tour Game, where you have to pay to play, but you can win serious merchandise. Here at the Caf? you pay nothing, and as for prizes... the winner will get the first Podium Caf? coffee mug, or a discount on a woolistic jersey, when we get around to merchandising in the fall.

One last note: everyone should feel free to play. You Anonymous Heroes out there, you needn't register with the site to play, just tack on some sort of nickname with your entry. Oh, and just one entry per person, have mercy on Clydesdale, and finally the deadline is one week from today, as in Wednesday the 28th. Have fun! [/ED]

You have 125 points to spend on your 9 riders. You may pick any combination of riders you want as long as the point total is 125 or less. The object is to have the lowest total time possible at the end of the Tour. Time will be counted Team Time Trial wise in that the time of the 5th man across from your team and the 4 above him will count against your aggregate time total, (hey it's a team sport, isn't it??). There will be bonus time to be awarded for top 15 finishes on flat stages, top 25 on Mountain finishes and top 10 on Individual Time Trial finishes as follows.... on the flip:

ITT:
1st 10 seconds
2nd 9 seconds
3rd 8 seconds
Etc.

Flat Finish
1st 30 seconds
2nd 28 seconds
3rd 26 seconds
Etc.

Mountain Finish
1st 75 seconds
2nd 72 seconds
3rd 69 seconds
Etc.

This will deemphasize the gaps on Time Trials and reward effort in the mountains. It will also make the selection of your lower riders very important as a couple of Autobus riders could hurt your time total a lot.

Post your teams as a reply and I will create a spreadsheet to follow them day by day.

I cannot guarantee a daily update but I will get it as quickly as possible.

The rider list is a preliminary one so there might be a few changes. Here it is along with the point values for each rider.
First...... Last...... Team...... Points
AG2R Prévoyance

Francisco Mancebo(AG2)...28
Christophe Moreau (AG2)...13
Cyril Dessel (AG2)...3
Alexandre Usov (AG2)...3
José Arrieta (AG2)...3
Mikel Astarloza (AG2)...3
Samuel Dumoulin (AG2)...3
Simon Gerrans (AG2)...3
Stéphane Goubert (AG2)...3

Agritubel
José Martinez (AGR)...5
Benoît Salmon (AGR)...3
Cédric Coutouly (AGR)...3
Christophe Laurent (AGR)...3
Eduardo Gonzalo (AGR)...3
Juan Mercado (AGR)...3
Manuel Calvente (AGR)...3
Moises Duenas (AGR)...3
Samuel Plouhinec (AGR)...3

Bouygues Telecom
Laurent Brochard (BTL)...15
Pierrick Fedrigo (BTL)...10
Anthony Geslin (BTL)...8
Didier Rous (BTL)...5
Jérôme Pineau (BTL)...5
Thomas Voeckler (BTL)...5
Laurent Lefevre (BTL)...3
Matthieu Sprick (BTL)...3
Walter Beneteau (BTL)...3

Crédit Agricole
Thor Hushovd (C.A)...25
Pietro Caucchioli (C.A)...5
Anthony Charteau (C.A)...3
Christophe Le Mevel (C.A)...3
Jimmy Engoulvent (C.A)...3
Julian Dean (C.A)...3
Laszlo Bodrogi (C.A)...3
Patrice Halgand (C.A)...3
Sébastien Hinault (C.A)...3

Caisse d'Epargne - Illes Balears
Alejandro Valverde (CEI)...25
Oscar Pereiro (CEI)...20
Vladimir Karpets (CEI)...8
David Arroyo (CEI)...3
Florent Brard (CEI)...3
Isaac Galvez (CEI)...3
José Garcia (CEI)...3
Nicolas Portal (CEI)...3
Xabier Zandio (CEI)...3

Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
David Moncoutié (COF)...15
Sylvain Chavanel (COF)...13

Ivan Parra (COF)...8
Rik Verbrugghe (COF)...8
Bradley Wiggins (COF)...5
Arnaud Coyot (COF)...3
Cristian Moreni (COF)...3
Jimmy Casper (COF)...3
Stéphane Augé (COF)...3

CSC
Ivan Basso (CSC)...38
Bobby Julich (CSC)...30
Stuart O'Grady (CSC)...30
Jens Voigt (CSC)...23
Carlos Sastre (CSC)...20
David Zabriskie (CSC)...8
Christian Vandevelde (CSC)...3
Frank Schleck (CSC)...3
Giovanni Lombardi (CSC)...3

Discovery Channel
Paolo Savoldelli (DSC)...30
George Hincapie (DSC)...25
Yaroslav Popovych (DSC)...13
Benjamin Noval (DSC)...3
Egoi Martinez (DSC)...3
José Azevedo (DSC)...3
José Luis Rubiera (DSC)...3
Pavel Padrnos (DSC)...3
Viatcheslav Ekimov (DSC)...3

Davitamon - Lotto
Robbie McEwen (DVL)...38
Cadel Evans (DVL)...18
Chris Horner (DVL)...8
Leon Van Bon (DVL)...8
Christophe Brandt (DVL)...3
Fred Rodriguez (DVL)...3
Gert Steegmans (DVL)...3
Johan Van Summeren (DVL)...3
Mario Aerts (DVL)...3

Euskaltel - Euskadi
Iban Mayo (EUS)...13
Inigo Landaluze (EUS)...8
Haimar Zubeldia (EUS)...5
Aitor Hernandez (EUS)...3
David Lopez (EUS)...3
Gorka Verdugo (EUS)...3
Iker Camano (EUS)...3
Inaki Isasi (EUS)...3
Unai Etxebarria (EUS)...3

Française des Jeux
Philippe Gilbert (FDJ)...13
Bernhard Eisel (FDJ)...10
Sandy Casar (FDJ)...10
Thomas Lövkvist (FDJ)...10
Benoît Vaugrenard (FDJ)...3
Carlos Dacruz (FDJ)...3
Christophe Mengin (FDJ)...3
Francis Mourey (FDJ)...3
Sébastien Joly (FDJ)...3

Gerolsteiner
Levi Leipheimer (GST)...25
Georg Totschnig (GST)...10
Beat Zberg (GST)...3
David Kopp (GST)...3
Fabian Wegmann (GST)...3
Markus Fothen (GST)...3
Peter Wrolich (GST)...3
Ronny Scholz (GST)...3
Sebastian Lang (GST)...3

Lampre - Fondital
Damiano Cunego (LAM)...30
Daniele Bennati (LAM)...18
Alessandro Ballan (LAM)...8
Salvatore Commesso (LAM)...5
Daniele Righi (LAM)...3
Francisco Vila (LAM)...3
Marzio Bruseghin (LAM)...3
Paolo Tiralongo (LAM)...3
Tadej Valjavec (LAM)...3

Liquigas
Danilo DiLuca (LIQ)...33
Stefano Garzelli (LIQ)...10
Magnus Backstedt (LIQ)...5
Kjell Carlström (LIQ)...3
Luca Paolini (LIQ)...3
Manuel Quinziato (LIQ)...3
Matej Mugerli (LIQ)...3
Michael Albasini (LIQ)...3
Patrick Calcagni (LIQ)...3

Astana - Würth Team
Alexandre Vinokourov (LSW)...38
Allan Davis (LSW)...25
Alberto Contador (LSW)...15
Jörg Jaksche (LSW)...13
Joseba Beloki (LSW)...13
Andrey Kashechkin (LSW)...8
Isidro Nozal (LSW)...5
Assan Bazayev (LSW)...3
Luis Sanchez (LSW)...3

Milram
Erik Zabel (MRM)...28
Mirko Celestino (MRM)...18
Alberto Ongarato (MRM)...3
Andry Grivko (MRM)...3
Björn Schröder (MRM)...3
Christian Knees (MRM)...3
Enrico Poitschke (MRM)...3
Fabio Sacchi (MRM)...3
Marco Velo (MRM)...3

Phonak Hearing Systems
Floyd Landis (PHO)...20
Miguel Perdiguero (PHO)...15
Axel Merckx (PHO)...5
Robert Hunter (PHO)...5
Alexandre Moos (PHO)...3
Bert Grabsch (PHO)...3
Koos Moerenhout (PHO)...3
Nicolas Jalabert (PHO)...3
Victor Hugo Pena (PHO)...3

Quickstep - Innergetic
Tom Boonen (QSI)...43
Filippo Pozzato (QSI)...15
Jose Rujano (QSI)...5
Bram Tankink (QSI)...3
Cédric Vasseur (QSI)...3
Juan Garate (QSI)...3
Matteo Tosatto (QSI)...3
Steven DeJongh (QSI)...3
Wilfried Cretskens (QSI)...3

Rabobank
Denis Menchov (RAB)...35
Michael Rasmussen (RAB)...20
Oscar Freire (RAB)...20
Thomas Dekker (RAB)...18
Michael Boogerd (RAB)...15
Juan Flecha (RAB)...13
Erik Dekker (RAB)...10
Joost Posthuma (RAB)...3
Pieter Weening (RAB)...3

Saunier Duval - Prodir
Gilberto Simoni (SDV)...25
David Millar (SDV)...13
José Gomez Marchante (SDV)...8
Christophe Rinero (SDV)...3
David Canada (SDV)...3
Francisco Ventoso (SDV)...3
Nicolas Fritsch (SDV)...3
Riccardo Ricco (SDV)...3
Ruben Lobato (SDV)...3

T-Mobile
Jan Ullrich (TMO)...38
Andreas Klöden (TMO)...25
Michael Rogers (TMO)...23
Oscar Sevilla (TMO)...10
Patrik Sinkewitz (TMO)...8
Eddy Mazzoleni (TMO)...3
Giuseppe Guerini (TMO)...3
Matthias Kessler (TMO)...3
Serhiy Honchar (TMO)...3
[editor's note, by chris] One last kicker: out of respect for the hosts, every squad must contain at least one Frenchman. This will be strictly enforced!